Alucard Meets Vash the Stampede
by Rim Alunatic
Summary: Alucard meets his exact opposite VASH THE STAMPEDE! This is a story doomed to give Vash a heart attack!
1. First Encounter

I do not own any Trigun thingies or Hellsing thingies…so….yeah…I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THOSE CHARACTER PEOPLE HERE. ALL NOT MINE! I highly recommend the two anime/manga's of course, though! Trigun and Hellsing

Poor Vash and his first encounter with Alucard…its going to be a very interesting few chapters….!

Screams filled Vash's ears as he gazed upon the dead bloody masses filling the hallway. He raced down the hallway lined with metal doors, the rooms hidden behind them filled with even more corpses. At the very end, to his right, the last of the sounds resonated with a scream for God's mercy. Vash tried the doorknob, it was locked.

Damn!He thought, sweat rolling down his face as he kicked the door –hard. The metal bent, but failed to fall of its hinges as planned. "Hey! Is anybody in there_ alive! Please_ hold on!" He yelled at the door while searching madly for a way in. Nothing revealed itself as a useful tool to lever the door off its hinges. _Double damn! _His mind raced, nearly to the point of crying as he heard one last pitiful cry of agony fading from the room. A strange and deep noise weaved its way through the newly acquired silence.

The door opened as Vash raised his leg to kick the door in further, and a tall looming figure stared down at him. A look of concern spread across his face, as if the man was realizing something for the first time. "Might I ask where I _am_ He asked in a deep, commanding, tone. Fresh blood covered his strange red clothing riddled with bullet holes –and yet, the man held _no _wounds to indicate he'd been shot at. Vash already had a tear streaking down his face, revolver in hand, as he managed to break his stare at the man and look past him –to the innumerable heaps and random limbs scattered throughout the room. The man repeated himself, his annoyance clear with his deepened and now almost growling voice.

"Did you…" Vash could not finish his words, too intent upon staring at the scene so casually left behind the tall black haired man. It was then that the man's black and unbelievably large gun was lifted to his head. For a long moment, the two stared at each other.

"Will you not tell me where I am? I can always find someone _else _to tell me." He said, calmly now. Finally, Vash looked into the man's eyes, they were _red _to his angelic blue.

"You're in the town of July, but _why_ did you do this? Why!" Vash stared into the crimson pools of the cruel man's eyes, unable to turn away.

"What country is this place in?"

"Country?" Vash remembered Rem's teachings of old Earth, how the lands were divided by large pools of water called Oceans, and so the lands were called countries –or something like that. "This planet has no countries," Vash explained solemnly to hide his confusion. No living person he had met knew what a country was, not since the days when the humans had first landed. The day when Rem- Vash frowned even more deeply as he tried to push the memory back. The man before him raised an eyebrow at the previous response, and a smirk spread across his face.

"I didn't think your frown could grow any deeper," He commented casually. "What bullets do you have in that revolver, and please refrain from saying there are no _bullets _in it," the man commented with his deep voice, the remark pointing out how utterly insane the idea of having no country seemed to him.

"Would it matter?" Vash retorted, his voice a harsh betrayal of his emotions. The man disturbed him, _deeply._ Even Knives would wonder at the artful display of body parts, - possibly long enough to recruit him. The man frowned and sighed. With no concern at all at the fact that he had a revolver pointed at him, he removed his gun from Vash's forehead.

"As the first man to not flinch under my presence, I ask your name.". The tone of annoyance had gone, replaced with ..curiosity?

"I am Ericks Longbottom Aluwishous Doughnuthaven Love N' Peace the third." A long pause followed the reply, and for a moment Vash thought the man would shoot him for insulting him. His thoughts moved from one way to escape to another as the man studied him over. Suddenly, the man's deep voice resonated through the hall way and seemed to fill the air itself. Laughter. What is with this guy? He kills everyone else in the building without reason in the five minutes it took for me to get to the building and up to this floor, and yet he laughs at being insulted?

"Bonus points," The man declared, obviously delighted. "You actually had the guts to give me that nonsensical name! Well, since you refuse to give it up freely…Vash,is it? Mine is Alucard."

A true smile broke the smirk previously dominating his face. Without warning Alucard turned from Vash and made his way down the hallway towards the elevator.

"Wait!" Vash yelled, the spell holding him by Hellish eyes alone dissapeared. Alucard did not stop. "Why did you kill all of these people? How did you know my name?" As someone who had been chased by every kind of man imaginable, only one knew how to read minds, but that man was dead. How can he have Lagato's powers! He can't have my arm, can he? Vash thought, not wanting the mass murder that Lagato had been able to procure merely by using the power Vash's arm had given him, thrice over.

Alucard continued walking until he reached the elevator. A tiny _Ping!_ echoed as the doors opened and he entered, his red eyes seeming to glow in the dim lighting.

"Half of it was that I was hungry," his now familiar voice said as the two doors closed. The voice seemed to linger in the room and be everywhere at the same time and yet – the man's lips had not moved. The elevator doors closed with another _Ping! _Vash dropped to the floor, eyes wide with what he had just experienced. Minutes passed, then hours –or so it felt as such, as he lay there with his back against the wall facing the room filled with mutilated corpses. iAll…All these people! Dead…wait…what'd he mean by _hungry?_His thoughts continually hit walls. His frown, had they seen it, would worry Maryle or Millie if they had seen it.

-!-!-!-

_Finished._ Wiping sweat from his forehead with his left arm, he gazed upon the newly dug graves, and bent his head in shame whenever a family member of the deceased looked in his direction.

"Mommy? Why did daddy die?" A little girls voice reached his ears and he closed his eyes, his back to the others while he leaned against his shovel so no one would see the tears rolling down his face. "Was he sick?" The girl asked, trying to pry any information she could from her mother who cried openly. Again the mother did not answer, only hugged the child. "Why didn't he tell me he was sick? Was it because he didn't think I could handle it? I could of! I really could!" After this, the mother quieted. He could almost feel the strength of resolve without looking as it over took the mother.

I should have been able to save at least some of them! Vash thought, sun was finally beginning to set as he resolved to make the man his first priority. Forcing images of mutilated corpses out of his mind, he smiled weakly as he watched Maryl aproach . No sadness, not for her.


	2. The plot begins

"I'm not sure if that's healthy, dear." The kind old woman said, her voice drifting off as Vash attacked the first row of doughnuts in the _enormous_ box he had just purchased. He smiled and walked away –chewing away as well, for that matter. "Don't eat them too fast!" Her warning called behind him in the form of a concerned mutter. _I remember her grandma, when she used to bake there,_ He mused, heading toward a semi-secluded bench with a good view of the the market place. The sun was bright today, and no incidents for an entire two weeks since 'Alucard' had murdered everyone at July's local T.G.C (Technology Gathering Center). Unfortunately, he knew better.. Eventually _something_ would come to break the peace he had, but that would not stop him from devouring his doughnuts first! He was already busy on the second row. sub((each row contains a total of ten full-sized doughnuts here people! X.x))/sub

"I can see you've been enjoying yourself_,_" A deep voice penetrated the peace he had been previously enjoying. _Aw Damn,_ Vash thought screwing up his eyes in his presence before looking up. After a silent debate between slight fear of others being harmed and facing the mass murderer who would invoke bad memories, he looked up to find i_nothing/i_. _What? But he was just-, _Vash saw him as a red cloaked figure barely visible in the shadows across the large market circle. _How did I hear him from all the way over there?_

i"'Sharp eyes, few could find me from where I'm hiding,"/i his casual tone again, as if he were standing right next to him explaining tomorrows weather. i Why, dry and upwards of triple digits of course, it never changes here!/i

"Alucard, right? Why are you talking to me? Aren't you worried I'll tell anyone?" Vash asked, almost not wanting to know as possibilities lined up in his head for the reasons he was there. i _He could be a person who works for Knives and wants to kill me, he could be here to kill me because having one person escape was annoying, or he could just want someone to talk to –fat chance,/i_ Vash thought miserably. Fighting was _not_ on his agenda today. iA mind reader. If it weren't for _Lagato I guess hearing him in my head would be trippy.../i _The grimace over his face was halted – he couldn't change his range of emotions too much in front of people.

"iYou really think they would believe you? I'm amazed no one realized who you were when you buried their dead,"/i Alucard stated, missing the tone of amazement he described feeling.

"You know who I am; does that mean you work for Knives?" Sighing he tried to quickly find a spot he could place his doughnuts before the possibility of a fight began. i_So much for finishing my doughnuts first, man, and I really hoped I would have another day of sitting in peace!/i_

i"Another day of peace? When did I say I was going to fight you?"/i Alucard's voice asked, reiterating Vash's thoughts. Shocked, Vash stared at the man hiding in the shadows with new worry.

"So you can read minds!" Vash almost yelled, his voice muffled due to a doughnut he had been in the process of chewing.

"Why is he talking to himself like that?" A passing girl giggled to her boy companion. A few others in the market were also staring at him while others merely shook there head. "…Must be loony, or something," he vaguely heard another say.

"So then, knowing I am not trying to kill you, would you speak with me later tonight?" Alucard asked, his maniacal chuckle continuing as if it were impossible to separate it from his voice.

"Why tonight, and not now?" Vash asked, deciding it was too late to stop talking to himself in public with the last group of girls who passed him in a fit of sudden hushed voices and glances in his direction.

"I _hate _the sun." he stated simply. Yet another person concerned about the loony chewing on doughnuts and sitting on the bench passed Vash, hiding the red-clad man from view momentarily. When the pedestrian had passed, he found Alucard vanished. i_Same spot, as soon as the sun is down_,/i Alucard's voice said calmly in Vash's head. He searched the market area at a speed that was almost unnatural. When he failed to find him, he continued to eat his doughnuts –more slowly this time, as he was now deep in thought.

_iSo he's either trying to kill me with less people around or actually talk- wow, i'm having a fest with fat chances today...but wouldn't that be nice?/I _

"Vash!" A young woman's voice called, breaking him from his seriousness. His face lit up with a goofy smile followed by a wave with a doughnut shoved in his mouth. "Vash! You lazy good for nothing! One of your new drunk buddies from last night came over and fell asleep in our room at the inn! Can't you ever make _normal _friends who can make their own money! I know you told him he could sleep there, and you did it without _our_ permission!"

His raised his hands in front of him in a shield, as if Maryl were about to punch him, as the angry insurance lady continued to rain death upon him through lectures. i_I guess I'll leave the whole Alucard thing for later today,/i_ he thought, continuing his look of utter shock at the fact that she had noticed Steve snoring loudly, leaning on the small table from the chair back at the inn. i_I'm so glad they follow me around sometimes, /i_he thought as he felt his happy-meter go up past what it was that morning when the girls had been out of town fixing their car.

-!-!-!-

The last angry colored streak left the sky as Vash sat on the bench from earlier that day, watching the suns lower themselves to the other side of the world. Obviously not attempting any kind of sneak attack with his almost rhythmic pace, came dull almost sound absorbing steps.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" Vash asked, slightly nervous as the temperature seemed to drop by considerable degrees as the man stood in front of him. The darkness suited Alucard perfectly, his strange red clothing seeming to copy the nights enclosing blackness. After a long pause, he spoke extending a gloved white hand. _Well this is new,_ Vash thought, shaking the hand with little hesitation.

"Since I have reason to believe we will be together for a while after this meeting, I will give you, at the very least, a handshake to form a bond between us," a pause lingered after this, and he chuckled, reading Vash's thoughts once more. "I also promise not to harm you or the '_insurance girls_,' although I am afraid I cannot be so gracious to the rest of the population in my current state."

"Current state?" Vash asked, slightly confused.

Alucard chuckled, obviously amused. i/_He did his creepy laughing thing again,/i _Vash thought with an inward grimace.

"Since you obviously have no idea what is going on, I will start with _what_ I am. I am a no life king, or _vampire,_" He said, menacingly. i_I won't disagree with him there; this guy doesn't seem to have a life at all if all he does is kill people!/i _A slight pause formed after that. Finally he smirked and continued, "I am assuming a large sum of years has passed since I was put to sleep by my previous master-" Alucard began until cut off by a very surprised Vash.

"'Master'! You're a human being, humans can't be owned like a pet!" Vash geared up for a full blown rant about humans having rights when Alucard stopped him with a cold glare.

"_No, _I am _not_ human, Vash. I haven't been human for five hundred and twenty-seven _years_, now let me finish or I'll rip off your lips," Alucard threatened. Vash was silent, wondering if what he had said was true. "I was forced into a sort of hibernation ordered by my master after I '_betrayed _the one I had promised to serve,' as i he/i put it," Alucard smirked at a memory, but for a moment Vash thought he could see a genuine look of inner-pain –though if he could, it was all thanks to his humanoid plant background. The look lasted less than a single bullet fired. "After put into the state of hibernation, to be brought back only until the family needed me again at its most dire time, I have no idea how many years passed. The most I understood from my state was that the world was dying, I could _feel_ it, and it was most depressing as I wished to witness the event," this time he was grinning that wicked grin of his. The red eyes contrasted against the moons."If my master's bloodline is still on this _planet. _I must find the head of the family and continue my protection of them. If they are gone, then it means only the end of a great house. I will be free. Are you following so far?"

"Yep, except what does this have to do with me?" Vash asked, curious, and with no idea what most of Alucards explanation meant. This is where the man smiled to a point where his face threatened to split in two.

"I've noticed that you are one of a very few I was able to identify with. You are not a human, and thus have all the requirements I need for what I am about to ask of you," There was a brief pause as if to prolong curiosity, "I am _asking_ you to help me find someone with enough technology to find someone of my master's family. This planet's too big –even for me. I also need you to assist me in finding a proper technological base to prevent a large sum of people on this planet from dying. As you hopefully have realized by now, I don't find food appetizing in the least, but rather, _blood," _Alucard stopped long enough to allow the information to sink in.

"What do you mean _blood?"_ He said, eyes narrowing with concern for others safety. Alucard shook his head.

"Have no folklore of vampires survived the strange trip to this planet from when I was last awake?" He asked rhetorically.

"Eh, no?" Vash asked, sky blue eyes looking with disgust after realizing what the vampire ate –er- _drank._

"We have a lot to discuss, you and I. The night is young, however, so this will leave us plenty of time, but I must ask, who is this Knives person, and why do you keep affiliating him with me?

-!-!-!-

**bWriters rant of the chapter…/b**

The next chapter will prove a lot more interesting, i'm revamping this after a 5 year hiatus. …and I plan on finishing the entire story in the next month or so. I am sure at least on person will like it… AND I WILL KEEP WRITING FOR THAT PERSON! (not singling anybody out or anything) maniacal laugh as a sad attempt to sound like Alucard who immediately comes in and shoots me saying I am _not_ the kind of person he wants imitating him. My last words? "Alucard…will you…sign…my …hat that I bought…off ebay..and looks…JUST LIKE YOURS:D?" he shoots me in the head for that one…poor me…that's a lot of money to be wasting on a shiny hat….

Vash: hmm….will I get those doughnuts back?

Me: No :) MWA HA HA HA! they get stale after sitting outside all night while your listening to cute Alucard..their not edible now…and HEY! STOP EATING THOSE STALE DOUGHNUTS! slaps them out of his grasp….he cries and I feel bad for him and buy him a new shiny box there ya go:D


	3. Millie's Worried and Alucard's Annoyed

Vash watched the activities of the locals going from store to store, the seemingly constant chatting with shop owners, and drunks coming and going into the saloons every market had, filling most of the scene before him. After a sleepless night speaking and arguing with Alucard, he had come to an agreement with the vampire. Again, he shuddered at the fact that he was actually agreeing with such a creature. Over and over again he played the scene when the sun began to rise and Alucard sighed from the newest request by Vash that he had to comply to in order to work with him.

"So you finally ask, you certainly thought about asking it enough," Alucard said, looking at Vash with his constant smirk. "If you must know, I was awakened by a young woman's blood. Apparently she had done something worth getting shot over. Unfortunately for them it happened where I was kept as an," Alucard paused with a laughing grin, "_artifact._ Her blood was pure now that I think of it, a rarity from the old planet. It seems the same goes here as well, for the past week or so I gorged on foul bloo-" Alucard stopped short, seeing anger seethe in new partners eyes.

"How many died after the T.G.C building?" Vash asked, his tone cold with anger. Alucard's smirk widened, obviously sensing hostility which had been sorely lacking in their last encounter due to either shock or bewilderment.

"Ten, a few to sate my blood lust, and the rest a group of young men who witnessed me drinking their sibling's life away and decided to challenge me. I apologize to have gone off the main question. It's in the blood, you see," Alucard answered with a chuckle at his own small joke. Vash's hands turned into tightly balled fists as he stared at the ground.

"No more death_! _You got that?" His voice did not shake as he stared at the 'no life king' differently now that he truly understood what it meant. Alucard sighed again, and looked as if all the fun was being sucked out of the deal somehow, making his partner more angry. "You said you drank," he paused, as if trying to convince himself that he had really heard Alucard say "_blood,_right?" Alucard nodded, red eyes fixed on him with awesome intensity.

"Please don't tell me I can't drink either," Alucard said, sarcastically, though he didn't bother to hide the annoyance as he said it.

"I realize that you must eat, er, drink, whatever you like to call it, but don't." Vash paused, the images of the dead from two weeks ago making another appearance in his head as he looked the vampire in the eyes again, "Don't do it to anyone but me. O.K? Don't _make me one _too – you said that could happen, right? _I don't want to be like you,_" he finally finished. The response was a huff.

"Do you _understand _what it is like to be bitten even _once?_ To be drained everyday, or even once a week would be _more _than enough to drive someone insane from the fear of it happening again. Even when I-" he stopped, obviously remembering something important to him. His smirk shrunk to a frown and he shook his head slightly, as if to get better control of the memory. "I can make it so that you do not recall it ever happened, if you'd like. The only time when it is without pain is when one is experiencing intense pain already, or I am under the control of the Hellsing family. As for changing you – a large 'if.'" Hunger flashed in his eyes rather than care. Vash nodded, though appalled at the 'if' Alucard added. He stiffened, wondering when 'meal time' was.

"No Vash, I already had my fill before coming," the vampire said with a smirk. He then sighed and continued where he left off before listing (what he considered an unnecessary) listing of new rules for him to abide by. "Once they saw that I had risen from my casket, they stated I was a monster and decided it would be intelligent to shoot me. So to satisfy my hunger and practice _self defense _when being shot at as a weaponless corpse, I massacred them," his smirk widened as Vash looked to the ground to avoid eye contact yet again.

Millie's familiar form appeared behind Alucard, walking away from the bakery he had purchased donuts from yesterday. Suddenly he realized his hand had become a tight fist. How much he wanted to make him apologize, or stop...being so much like his brother.

And Alucard was gone again, seemingly as the first ray of sun touched gound... Did sunlight harm him? Appropriate, wierdly.

"Mr. Vash!" she called, smiling.

"Hi Millie!" He responded, his goofy grin already masking the seriousness held previously. He sniffed the air, eyes glittering in the new dawn as he eyed the box cradled in her hands. "Are," he stopped moving closer to the box with a plotting look in his emerald eyes, "are those _donuts!?_" He pawed enthusiastically. Millie nodded, sitting down on the bench with him.

"Maryl's been worried about ya, ! 'Cause she noticed you were really serious looking this morning -even more serious than the past few weeks even- and you've been sitting here for two days! So I brought you some donuts to cheer you up to cheer Maryl up!" She rained happiness over Vash with her innocent smile. Already busy chewing, he nodded, inwardly concerned that he had failed to keep up his normal characteristics since he had met Alucard.

"Where is Maryl?" Vash asked as Millie stared at something that had caught her interest briefly. Reiterating himself broke concentration.

"huh? Oh! Maryl's in the bar. Her shift'll be over in an hour, I think. Hey! Where are ya going, Mr. Vash?" She asked as he got up and began walking out of the market to the bar just outside of it, towards the cities North end.

"To have a drink _and _meet some ladies!" Came the dutiful response, his right hand make a peace sign. Yet another group of pedestrians passed him giggling. Millie called after him: "Have fun!"

-!-!-!-

"I would like the cheapest alcoholic drink you have, please!" Vash told the bartender, sitting as close as possible to a young, curvey, female. Tight shirt, gorgeous hair and eyes, stylish skirt- "Hi! What's your name beautiful?" The gaze was set on automatic cool-person attitude.

"Me? I'm _Mrs_. Brittany Spears, nice to meet you?" She said, emphasizing the 'Mrs.'

"I'm Ericks Longbottom Aluwishous Doughnuthaven Love N' Peace the thir- wait, '_Mrs_.'? As in, _married, '_Mrs'?" His cool attitude shrunk as he felt an all too familiar pain hit him on the head. The woman laughed, sipping her water as Maryl hit him a few more times on the head before beginning her lectures.

"Vash! Stop annoying the customers! Honestly, what will I do with you? You're like a big baby or something, one that drinks and leeches off me and Millie's paycheck! I have only so much kind and forgiving nature to give, you know!" The insurance girl pulled up a chair to finish her lecture.

"If that's 'forgiving and kind' then I don't want to know what 'unforgiving and unkind' is lik-" Another hit to the head greeted his whining as Maryl shut him up with tray number two. She sighed. 'Boss wasn't going to like that.

"Stop complaining! Listen to what you deserve, leech!" She ordered. He straightened his back and leaned on the chair towards her in fake attention, letting the saloon smell of alcohol calm his nerves for the delicate dance he attempted with her. It lasted two minutes before he started hitting on yet another girl in the bar who had sat down. _What are the chances I get two married woman? _He wondered as Maryl's wrath came down upon him yet again.

"Okay, okay! I surrender, but know this: I will not be here to leech off of you for a few weeks or so!" He said, attempting to sound fake when he was really serious to Maryl. She stopped her lecture and stared at him suspiciously.

"Why? Where are you going?" She asked.

"I," Vash stumbled for words as he realized he hadn't planned his excuse past "I", "...have to go because," another pause, "I need a vacation from," this time an even longer pause, "you?" He finished trying to sound like he meant it.

"Us? What do you mean from us! Fine then, you can go where ever the hell you want! But you have to come back in a few weeks or else Millie and me will be on your tail!" She warned, a death glare coming at him like laser beams as she stormed out of the bar.

"Eh, young man?" A feeble old man asked behind the counter.

"Yeah?" Vash asked, still a little out of sorts from the Maryl encounter.

"She wasn't done with her shift, could you bring her back?" Vash looked at him stupefied.

"Sure, but can someone come with me? I favor _life_," he said, half joking.

-!-!-!-

The wind had picked up slightly as Vash picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, walking back to the market. After the argument with Maryl that morning he had gone to sleep since it didn't seem Alucard would willingly travel when the desert suns were out, not to mention that he would need the rest.

"Do you have any idea where a technologically advanced base could be located yet?" Alucard's voice cut through the desert crickets as he laid a large black rectangular box next to him. No it wasn't a box, it was a _coffin!_

"What's with the coffin?" Alucard carried it so easily! "Also,_stop talking like that!_"

"This coffin is almost as old as I am, it was made for my body when I first died, and it shall stay with my body when it finally makes peace. What is wrong with how I speak?" Alucard asked, casually.

"You talk so…so _perfectly._It's getting creepier every time you open your mouth and a new word I've never heard of comes out, and then there's that really weird accent you have," Vash complained as they began to walk.

"My accent is that of a country which used to exist on Earth, I will not have you speak lowly of it," Alucard said, focused on the cool blue of the nights moons. "This planet has two," he commented quietly, a smile breaking. Vash shrugged.

"Yeah, so? Didn't Earth have two?"

"It had one." Alucard said, his voice completely emotionless as he stood for a brief moment staring.

"Oh yeah! Your question. I know a place where you can find enough stuff from when humans landed that would make a T.G.C center give you all the money they have for it," Vash said, though no real emotion showed in his voice. _I can't talk to this guy like everyone else, why? Is it because of what he did at T.G.C? Yeah, that's definitely part of it. Then the other part must be that no one told him to do it. All the other people I've faced had a reason for what they were doing- something to forgive them by for what they had done –this man…he couldn't have needed that many people to stop his hunger, would he? They walked in the direction of the moon until just before dawn._

The second light hinted a 'good morning' Alucard began to defy physics with his walking speed. A small town still lay three miles ahead, but in the ten minutes that passed the two had made the distance. Alarmed, Vash had tried to keep up, but only barely. Being broke, he hadn't planned on staying in a hotel but sleeping on a bench, but then he realized that his new traveling companion didn't seem the type to sleep on the ground. Too fancy.

"Eh, Alucard?" Vash asked sheepishly.

"Yes?"

"I don't have any _money_…" Vash said, grinning. Alucard stared at him.

"Hotels exist on this planet, correct?" He asked, and Vash nodded. "Then direct me to the nearest hotel and we shall get a room," He said with a chuckle.

"No, Alucard, you don't get it. I don't have any _money!_" Vash said covering his face with his hand as if trying to rid himself of a headache.

"_Direct me to the nearest hotel,_" Alucard persisted, annoyance seeping into his words. Vash gave up, and within a few minutes they had entered a hotel. He could only smile to the cashier, expecting to be kicked out for having no money when his new pal stepped up and commenced a staring contest.

"We would like a room, please," he requested pleasantly.

"That will be forty double dollars please," The woman behind the counter said just as pleasantly.

"We have no money," Alucard stated bluntly. Vash was already turning towards the door. "We would like a room, please," he said again. The girls eyes widened and she nodded.

"Thank you for coming, please enjoy your stay," the woman said, handing the room key to Alucard with a glazed look.

"Won the contest," He said to Vash, hefting his coffin over his shoulder with a haughty snort.

"Win some you lose some... Is she okay?"

The vampire ignored him.

**Writers rant:**

Well there's chapter three, just so you know this story isnt meant to be one of those never ending things…there's…actually… ..! _Gasps are heard in the audience…._also I kind of figured everyone would assume Vash was pissed at Alucard but to verify it I made this chapter slightly longer…all this stuff I force you to read is so you understand the final chapter which ties everything in and answers the question of what Alucard did that made his former master say he "betrayed the one he promised to obey" or something like that….once again I will tell you all that I am very busy due to exams and such and will not be able to write much at a quick pace….the only reason this came out so soon is because I kind of erm…_.took a day off from school _though I think you'd call that skipping…but is it skipping when your mom agreed to it?

ANYWAY:

Alucard: what do you mean my accent is creepy?

Vash: it is!

Alucard: _dramatically sharp intake of breath and:_The big blue bird from Saint Maries left a big white tur-

_Vash: SHUSH! THIS IS FOR TEENS! WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU SAYING STUFF THAT RESEMBLES A QUOTE FROM A BORING SCHOOL BOOK!_

_Alucard: (maniacal laughing )_ (attempts to shoot humanoid plant playfull but accidently shoots him in the leg…. this be foreshadowing? ….._maybe…)_

Vash: WHAT WAS THAT FOR!

Alucard:(_millionth smirk of day) _boredom…also don't forget you said I couldn't eat any body…I am hungry…

Vash:_Silence…_erm…CRAP! So …how do you get their blood anyway? Do you just make a cut or something on their arm and lick it?_Shudders_…how grose…

Alucard:_smirk that says : HA HA, you have no idea…_you'll see (_maniacal laugh here ~*~ )_


	4. Alucard and Vash Vs the doom flowers

Vash found himself awake hours before the sun came down. He yawned, walking away from the hotel and finding himself sitting on yet another semi-secluded bench every town seemed to have -along with saloons and bakeries- watching the people move to and fro in the market. As always, he found himself recapping on what had happened recently, and found himself in a melancholy mood without his perky insurance girls there to keep his characteristic front in check. It seemed as if the day had been pointless without another smack upside the head from Maryl, or Millie giving him those angelic smiles to him at random occasions.

"Ow! What was that for?" Vash complained, a sharp pain focused on the back of his head throbbed as he dug a pebble from his flesh. The tiniest specks of blood glinting on the index finger used to dig the pebble out. _A pebble made me bleed?_ He turned to see who had hit him.

_"Stop whining, a person could hear your thoughts a mile away!_" Alucard stated simply, a few more pebbles in his hands. "Do you always have to think of your insurance girls?" He asked, his detached and floating hands dropping the pebbles still in them, and disappearing as if leaving through an invisible door. Vash -now traumatized by what he had just seen- stared where not Alucard, but Alucard's _arms and hands_ had been floating, mouth agape. _That's funny, it almost sounded like he was complaining for a sec there! _Vash thought randomly as he slowly recovered from the newest trick Alucard had revealed to him. "_Simpleton, I was complaining,_" Alucard echoed in his mind.

_Can't you ever act normal for a second? _Vash complained back, realizing that there may be a chance to reform him if given the chance.

_"Reform me? From what, eating a few 'bites and snacks' along the daily trail? Leave me to enjoy the simple things in death!"_ The vampire retorted. "_Now let me sleep, I haven't had a drop of blood in two nights!"_ Vash froze as the tiny presence in his head disappeared.

_Oh yeah, he …er…oh crap!_ For a frantic moment he tried to figure out how the vampire gained his victims blood. _I'm sure it'll be something simple…he wouldn't slice off an arm or anything to get it, right? Maybe slitting a wrist or something?_ Vash stopped his sudden preference to slitting his wrists as he realized what Maryl would say when she saw the scars. After a few days or weeks or so of slitting them they wouldn't heal as quickly, the scars becoming noticeable to the over protective insurance lady. _Then she'll think I tried to kill myself. Would she believe me if I said it was for an insane weirdo who drinks blood? No, it takes some serious proof to convince her of something, and I can't introduce Alucard to her. Crap! _His mind reeled with possible ways to feed his new traveling companion

_I'm sure he knows a way to make it unnoticeable after living as long as he has, _Vash assured himself as he watched the suns slowly make their way out of view, and darkness ate away at the market's previously bright nature. He stood up, stretching in the last rays of sunlight, and headed slowly to the hotel.

-!-!-!-

Vash hesitated before entering the hotel room, the thought of his blood in Alucard's mouth disturbing him to no end. The door opened unexpectedly, and he could see Alucard stretching next to his coffin. _Did he open the door without touching it? _Vash almost laughed but the expectant patience for something in Alucard's eyes stopped him. _I saw his hands floating earlier and I am still amazed at most of the stuff this guy does! _Vash managed to force himself a few steps forward. Alucard sat on his black coffin, waiting for his meal, or so Vash assumed so.

"You," Vash managed to choke out, "won't turn me into a thing like you right?" Alucard chuckled and nodded. The door shut behind him.

"What, are you a virgin?" he asked, looking incredulous. He laughed harder now as Vash looked at the ground. "This is new, but I highly doubt I can turn a monster into another monster," he said. "Even if that monster is a virgin," he added.

"What do you mean 'even if that monster is a virgin'? How does it matter?" Vash asked, not caring in the least that he was a virgin at his age. _I am not a monster,_ he thought offensively. _He must have some way of telling who's human or something. He said something about me not being human when we first met, but I was too shocked at the other stuff he was saying to me at the time. Did he figure it out by reading my mind or something?_

"Now Vash, I'm hungry, and you seem to think the world is better off with me feeding off of you instead of humans, so stop hesitating. You are the one who set these rules by which I must abide by. If you wish to change them now it will not matter much-" Alucard stopped as his new blood bank stepped forward and sat down next to him.

"So uh, how do you …erm... get my blood exactly?" _Gosh, I hope it doesn't leave a scar for Maryl to see if it's something like cutting my wrists!_ Alucard blinked and looked at him as if amazed at Vash's stupidity. It ended and he chuckled again.

"You didn't realize how I fed on people, even after seeing the corpses?" Alucard asked with a hand on his head as he laughed uncontrollably. _That was him…feeding!? The bodies with their necks missing patches of __skin__ on their necks, and the ones with their head ripped of by some weird weapon? That was his teeth? Is that what he's saying! I have to let him get near my neck? He'll kill me! '_Fight or flight' mode didn't begin to cover this...

"Besides the fact that I could kill you without a fight, being so close, I highly doubt I could turn you into one of my kind," Alucard reassured him again. "So you realize what it means now? Good. Do you wish to continue in this particular rule, then?" He asked, laughter ceasing. Vash stared at the ground, knowing there were no alternatives.

"I'm not going to let you hurt anyone- the rule stays, but…is there any other way besides letting you…er…you know, near my _neck_?" He asked, hopefully. _Wait, did he just say highly doubt? As in not knowing for sure! Well, ah… crap!_

"Well, if you want me to cut off your hand to get the amount of blood I need in a decent amount of time, no. The largest vein in the human body is the jugular, and quickly dispenses blood when punctured," Alucard said grinning. _How can he grin at this?_ Vash thought, disturbed at yet another aspect of Alucard's personality.

"So basically," a deep sigh overtook him, "I have to trust you and hope you don't break my neck, or turn me into a vampire?" The response was a nod.

"If it helps at all, I continue the agreement that I will not do either. My promises are binding." Alucard said with a smirk replacing the previous movements of his face. Vash's eyes shut tight for a brief moment as he summoned the courage to trust the man he knew murdered innocent people. _Please let him keep his word!_ He sent his hope to a God he wasn't sure existed.

"Okay." Alucard's gaze on him narrowed suddenly and as Vash looked up to see him reaching towards him, jaw seeming to separate like a dogs more than a mans, fangs included. Involuntarily he jerked out of their reach. Realizing what he did he wondered if he should apologize or something, and looked up. The vampire merely watched him, hunger not being hidden from his red eyes. "Erm, yeah…" Vash muttered, the words falling off his tongue nervously. He moved back towards Alucard and closed his eyes, not wanting to watch.

For a brief moment he wondered if it would be better to have his revolver pointed at the man's arm or something, but realized it wouldn't help at such close range. Slowly he undid the two buttons holding the protective neck piece on his trench coat, eyes still tightly shut. Cold emanated from Alucard's gloved hands as he ensnared Vash in his arms. At first it seemed almost ticklish, but then came pain: sharp and prolonged, growing and changing in strength every second. It surprised him at just how much pain he felt, the feeling of skin suddenly being punctured and then a major vein in his body. He thought he could hear a crunch, and the pain enveloped him soon after it. Cold replaced blood in his veins, it seemed, with a sudden rapidity that shocked him. The feeling was soon added to a colorful background of sharp and unending pain.

His hands tightened into balled fists and he squirmed to no avail in Alucard's unyielding grip as he felt the strange and consistent pulling of the blood from him. It continued for what seemed like forever, the pain so intense Vash couldn't think. He knew his eyes were open, but he couldn't see anything but black, and the feeling continued until it reached a medium and stayed there, not becoming bearable, and not letting him escape it for a moment. When it stopped, it left him in a state of shock while Alucard gently removed his fangs and licked the wound until it had healed completely. Vash, still blind from the pain, fell to the floor, convulsing and reduced to hugging himself with his arms. It took a half hour for him to regain any sanity he had previously begun with, site returning to his eyes.

"Congratulations, you are neither dead, nor a vampire!" Alucard stated sarcastically as Vash sat up from next to the rooms one bed –Alucard had slept in his coffin. Vash couldn't bring himself to even look at the man.

"So that was it? When's the next time?" Vash asked, fear creeping into his voice. He felt light headed and woozy, and his neck ached slightly, he felt it for wounds –nothing. _How is that possible?_ He wondered.

"You took it extremely well, in my opinion, stayed awake the entire time-though whether that is a good thing for you to be enduring it the entire time or not is another thing entirely. Most would have either had died from shock of it all or gone unconscious for hours. It has only been a half-hour and you're awake, quite the feat. I haven't taken enough but I have had enough for another day or so. Did you know that under extreme stress your body can convert you're arm into a nasty looking piece of equipment?" Alucard asked casually. Vash stopped breathing for a moment. _My arm…it...No way! I could've blown up the town!_

"Please note that you are very much alive and did nothing to break my promise," Alucard pointed out the smirk returning to his face. "So what is your verdict? Are we going to do this every time I am hungry or…?" Vash closed his eyes and shuddered out his next words.

"_Every time_ until you find that other way to eat, cloning blood or whatever," Vash managed, through his teeth. _I won't have anyone go through what I just experienced if I can help it! _He thought resolutely, though fear wove itself in and out of his thoughts. _Next time_, he thought with an involuntary fist on his knee_, it'll be done away from anywhere I could hurt anyone, just in case my arm goes berserk again._

"Shall we leave now?" Alucard asked, securing his coffin with either some kind of magic or invisible straps which Vash could not see and hefting it onto his back. The question had been rhetorical. The desert had dropped to its normal night temperatures – freezing. Vash relied on the hundred year old suit under his trench coat for warmth.

They made it to the outskirts of the town in minutes, the hotel being less than quarter mile from it. Alucard stared at something on the ground as Vash walked a few feet in the direction they had planned to head, thinking Alucard was following. "You can find even a rose in a desert if you look hard enough," he murmured, reciting a quote from an ancient play from Earth- though his partner had no idea. Realizing the distance between them, he sped up enough to maintain a solid five foot bubble of space.

"A flower?" Vash asked questioningly. The town had little water to speak of, and yet he could tell it was healthy even in the dark. "Were there..." Vash paused looking at the flower as if it were a giant diamond they had stumbled across, "lots of flowers on Earth?" Alucard looked at him curiously, but responded. His voice much less painful than looking directly at him.

"Yes, though I don't remember much of them since I was human. They came in all colors imaginable. I seem to remember roses best."

"Roses, huh? Figures," Vash commented, knowing all to well the crimson color roses held, though he had only heard of them in books he had read when Rem was – he stopped that train of thought, not wanting Alucard to read his thoughts.

Finally, Alucard moved away from the flower and followed Vash. "So you can see in the dark, right?" Vash asked, looking straight ahead into the semi-darkness. Full moons always lasted two days on the planet, just as there would be two new moons and two crescents and so on, so he could see most things in the darkness.

"Yes," he responded.

"Good, 'cause if any sandworms come, we're going to need to get a heads up."

"Sandworms?" Alucard asked, curiously.

"They're like giant worms with teeth and they can eat someone whole if you don't look for them."

"I see," Alucard said, curiosity edging his voice. Then, as if it had just occurred to him: "your resilience is unnerving if you've managed to speak to me even this much after earlier," he commented. Vash wondered if it was a compliment but didn't reply. The rest of the night went along quietly, no worms, and no surprises.

A few hours before the morning, Vash realized that the next town would be too far off to reach before the suns rose in the sky, and he was tired. His gut told him that it was from Alucard feeding off of him that had sapped his energy, but to take his mind off that whole ordeal he chose to think it was him getting out of shape. Having traveled the sands for upwards of a century he knew exactly where a large cavern under the sand sat not too far off. It had once been a proud member of the seeds ship but had been too damaged for him to try and repair the last time he visited. Another reason was that Alucard didn't seem to like sunlight, and tried to avoid if it at all possible.

_I wonder if something bad happens if he's in the sunlight…?_ He wondered after explaining to Alucard his intentions of spending the day in the cavern. The tall man agreed. It bothered Vash more than a little that he acted as if there existed no reason to rush anything, to get anything done. An uneven mix of caring and not caring.

It took about an hour to reach the cavern and another half hour to make sure the place wasn't being used by robbers or anything along those lines. Alucard placed his coffin in the innermost corner of what was left of the underground ship. After years of sitting there the once empty ship had gradually been filled with sand until only that small portion remained, top thirty-five feet or so of something that easily covered a small town. It was lucky for him that it hadn't been completely filled by time when he reached it. _I need to take into account the passing of time more often, or I'll get screwed next time!_

The moons were beginning to hide behind some far off sand dunes and the sun's glow had reached a small portion of the desert when Alucard walked from the door he had stood post at all morning.. In his hand was the flower from the beginning of the night, his fingers feeling its petals and his eyes examining it with a sudden interest. Vash noticed.

"Why'd you pluck it! It was healthy where it was!" It was then that he realized it was significantly easier to look at the crimson vampire. Alucard looked up, no smirk or all knowing smile overcoming his face.

"I _didn't._ This is another flower. I had thought they were rare, but on our way they seemed to be around every half mile or so," Alucard said.

Vash curiously looked at the hole at the top of the ship, they were at least thirty-five feet below ground as he could judge. _Weird, maybe the plants are finally adapting or something, _he thought, making space for his bed under a sand covered computer desk-type object. Alucard lay in his coffin and shut it, not to come out again until later that day when the sun was completely gone.

Sleep came with much difficulty; every time he shut his eyes he would think he felt Alucard trying to feed off of him again and would wake up trying to escape his imaginary foe. Finally, during the hottest part of the day he gave up and climbed the sharp incline out of the ship to get some fresh air. It was about an eight foot drop from the bottom edge of the ships ragged entrance to the sandy ground. He fell with a slight "umph!" at the unexpected feeling of the ground. It was _hard_, and yet it was sand. He looked at it suspiciously, kicking the ground to reveal a tightly woven and intricate pattern of roots just inches below the sand. _That would explain why the ground feels like cement, but what's with the roots? _He wondered. At least five of the flowers were around the ship that had not been there the previous night, he noticed trying to figure out the reason for all the roots.

He covered his eyes with his right and peered into the endless miles of sand; a sudden wind blew sand into his eyes and forced him to look down. _What is going on here?_

"Hi, are you Vash by any chance?" A voice asked from behind him. He whirled around to the voice to see a crippled old man leaning on a cane. He had sunglasses over his eyes and behind him was a teenager a few feet taller than the at least four foot high man. His arms were folded and he watched Vash intently with guns strapped all around his belt and a rocket launcher hanging to his back. _Crap! Who are these guys?_

"Are you Vash the Stampede?" The old man asked, annoyed by Vash's lack of response. Hurriedly, Vash looked for any possible ways out but knew he was surrounded by miles of sand and nowhere to hide but the sand dunes and the ship, but with that rocket launcher they could cave the ship in if they wanted to.

"You want to know who I am?" Asked Vash seriously to the old man and the teenager. He paused thinking of a way out of this predicament while examining his opponents. The teen had short brown hair and eyes, and the old man had graying hair and cloudy blue eyes, both didn't look friendly. He sighed giving up the thought of running away-it would be useless. "I am Erick Longbottom Aluwishous Doughnuthaven Love N' Peace the Third, or you may know me as Erick Longbottom or Aluwishous or Love N' Peace or the Third –wait…that wont work…okay any of the above except 'The Third," because that sounds weird!"

"What a load of bull, yep that's him! According to the others he likes to waste time and act dumb," the teen said. Immediately the teen raced forward and began to shoot at him with two of the guns attached to his belt, Vash barely dodged the semi automatic. He managed to evade a few of the kid's kicks and punches as well as his revolver and other gun while pulling out his own revolver and aiming for the child's arm to injure him a bit. He fired and missed. To his shock a tall thick _root_ had come out of ground and blocked it, though with a price: it was now withering into dust. Vash stared amazed, _I bet Alucard would find this interesting,_ he thought as the teen overcame his bewilderment at almost being shot and began yelling at the old man. "I could have handled this buffoon on my own! I would have dodged the bullet!" he complained.

Vash turned to study the old man briefly who had moved his cane slightly and found himself leaping into the air to avoid tendrils grabbing at his ancient boots. Apparently the roots didn't care. They waited for his innevitable fall back to sand, curling around his limbs instantly. Oxygen quickly ran a deficit. Light headed and off guard he fought to aim his revolved to the largest offender... the tendril moved out of aim. Fruitlessly he began trying to point his gun at the cane. The old man, seeing what Vash intended, moved his cane again in another direction and the roots forced his hand to move the gun to under his chin. _Damn it! _He thought, looking around.

"Alright, Mr. Knives's brother, Vash the stampede, your brother wants to know how you've been able to block his attempts to find you in the past few days. If you don't answer things could get sloppy since he said that if we _lowly worms_ could kill you, you weren't worth anything alive," the teen said menacingly.

_Knives? They work for him? He's only a kid!_ The tightening roots loosened slightly allowing him to breathe enough to not pass out. Vash looked at the ground, trying to persuade them that he was alone. _Okay Alucard, you say you can hear my whining a mile away, let's see if its true! _Vash thought suddenly, hit by an idea. _I miss Maryl, and I miss Millie… Life is soooo much better with them! I miss Mayl's daily slaps upside the head… _He thought, emphasizing the words in his head to make them as annoying as possible. The response was immediate.

"Vash, I thought you could handle yourself against two humans? And must you use them as a means of _annoying me awake?_" Alucard's voice echoed in his head.

"Yes!"

"What?" The old man looked to the ship as if something there were hurting him and fell to the ground gasping. "Jake!" he gasped to the teenager, and with an even greater struggle he managed to utter: "-The cave! Something is killing my flowers from there! Blow it up!" With the last sentence he collapsed convulsing, the roots slackened and withered. Vash fell to the ground much like the old man, taking in great gulps of air before racing to 'Jake' to stop him. _Crap!_ He thought as he saw him grab the bazooka from his back, aim, and fire. The result was immediate. A great fire emerged from where it had been shot _inside_ the ship, and the barrier preventing much of the sand from coming in broke. Sand entered the ship in torrents as Vash raced to the quickly filling ship. _Oh crap! He's in there!_ He thought as another large explosion forced him off his feet.

"Oh no, you don't! Whoever's down there is dead now!" The boy yelled glancing at the old man apathetically and firing another round from the bazooka without warning. Vash felt himself flying from the impact. _Shards_ of sharp metal flew from it. Several imbedded themselves into the back of his head as he ran away.

Jake fired off round after round at Vash's body until he was out of shots, and then pulled out the two guns and walked towards him confidently. The bazooka had been thrown down beside the old man. The shards of metal covered the ground and now a line along vash's ear to his chin. Experimentally, he grasped one and yanked. It did not come out smoothly. A piece of his flesh came with it followed by the sensation of warm liquid to the side of his brow. Dust kicked up in the air made it sting.

"This is the great _Vash the Stampede?_ Beaten by a teenager? What a joke!" He sneered, kicking Vash in the side. "All it took was a modified bazooka and some poisoned shrapnel! A dying _monster_! I can't believe I beat you! Everyone made you out to be so much…_more_ than you really _are_, ya know that?" The kid continued on as Vash flopped over, pretending to be dead. Personally the poisons had affected him tremendously, but he did not feel like he was dying – not yet anyway. He could tell already the toxins had only made him slower so far. He silently cursed himself for not telling Alucard to get out immediately. _Now he's buried under at least thirty feet of sand. In a coffin no less!_ Vash almost chuckled. _Do I really dislike him so much that I can laugh about this? Even if he was a monster –no he was human once, _Vash began.

"Do you still need my help?" Alucard's voice broke through his self ridicule.

"Alucard!" Vash managed to mumble. He was beginning to feel less slow and more ..._drunk._ Flippity floppity. Oh this was bad, the poison wasn't deadly, it was the magical boon he'd wanted all his life except _not right now at this very freaking moment. _Though, hands down, he felt absolutely invincible and king of the world – so why did he need Alucards help again?

"Nah, I got this...'Ole Red Eyes..i dooooo...i do..." Vash couldn't help slurring the words towards the end. It seemed as if he'd swallowed an entire pitcher of expensive wine in five minutes. Had it been five minutes? Things were moving, but maybe that was because he was moving...

"Oh so you're alive, are you? Amazing. I guess you live up to at least _half _your reputation then, Vash." The boy commented with a kick to Vash's head.

"Well?" Alucard asked again. "I won't ask again, if you can still handle this I am going back to sleep."

"You do realize you'ree under, like, thirty feets of sand riiiiight?_"_ Vash asked aloud, amazed.

_"Of course, how could I not? _The noise was horrid, but I refuse to get into the sunlight just to save someone who can save himself. " A short lucid moment hit Vash for one coherent thought:

"_I 'm not sure, the kid used poison or something when he tried to blow me up earlier and now I can't seem to function..."_

_"Do you have any idea how ludicrous that sounded?"_ Vash heard vaguely. A sigh followed. "_Alright, I'm coming up. I am not going out into two suns." _

"Well, I've had enough of this! Screw Knives, you're hardly worth my time," Jake announced. A genuine look of sadness sifted through Vash's increasingly drunken haze. He put his semi automatic on his belt and raised his revolver to Vash's head.

-!-!-!-

**authors rant:**

I AM SOOOO SORRY GUYS! I didn't mean to have you wait so long, I had a lot of stuff to worry about and such, and I'll have even more to worry about until school over in about a month…but don't worry! I plant to have this story done with by the end of the year AT MAX! _that's funny I thought I heard a few of my fans just fall over backwards from a heart attack at the words: "less than a year at max" ….i shrug now and laugh maniacally_. Anyway…the thing where vash gets bitten is my innermost fantasy..not that he gets turned into a vampire or anything just the cuteness of having alucard…ermm..nvermind…_hits head on desk_ BE GONE EVIL THOUGHTS THAT ARE VERY CLOSE TO HAVING THEM GAY SOUNDING! I refuse to help in the rumor that Alucard may be bi…to me that is just….Sacrilegious! to me worshipping alucard is my religion…:D I am a very twisted person..and I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to steal his hat…. . ….anyway: sorry to leave you all on a kind of cliff hanger thingy…the next chapter begins with some cool stuff….see alucard come OOOoooOOOoh! A shiny object! _Plays with shiny object and forgets what I was about to say :) _yep…sorrys if this chapter sucks..once again I accept flame mail since that's how you improve stuff. I have fixed the fact that Vash has green eyes and not blue eyes on the files on my com but have yet to fix them online until they are completely edited sooo yeah… hope you enjoyed this:D


	5. Vash explains his existance

"Wonderful, _two suns_. I _hate_ the light," Alucard complained lightly, his red floppy hat quavering slightly. His dark red eyes seemed black in the suns light for some odd reason as he advanced upon the startled Jake.

Jake said nothing, whipping his body around to face yet another red clad oddity. Recovering from his surprise, he fired two rounds into Alucard's throat and stomach, laughing at the idiocy of the enemy to stand in point blank range. Vash, having just overcome the realization that Alucard had materialized out of nothing but a growing mass of darkness from some thirty feet under his paralyzed body, watched, amazed as Alucard took the bullets without flinching. His thoughts were more appropriate: _Nope, i'd... run away, sure as donuts...and...man, I feel so greeeeat right _now... Liquid darker than blood leak from the bullet wounds of his companion.

He imagined his brain currently turning that way as the effects of 'super potent poison' turned out to be nothing more than 'instantly wasted' blend of everything he should have experienced since he started drinking at 12. _I need to market this to saloons...'could call it, eh, the Sixty-Billion Double-Dollar Bounty Mix an' earn...no Millie could –_ At this point the sanity wore thin, breaking into more distantly spaced ideas strung along by an imaginary desert cat, staring at him. Apparently it became the future logo of his [ridiculously named] product line. Meanwhile Alucard carried on. What dark drops of liquid hit golden sand turned to ash, sizzling as they did.

"Who sent you?" Alucard asked coolly, his wounds healing as he spoke. Jake stared, more curious now then amazed.

"Who made you?" The youth countered, stepping back, an eight inch, edged, blade set with intricate patterns deep into the metal and flowing to the very tip appeared in his left hand. Tiny razor marks made up the sides of the weapon. A tool of many uses. Alucard raised his brow, examining at a distance. The interest passed after it hit its target dead on. Alucard stumbled back at the impact, oddly grinning as he regained his balance. A hilt protruded from his chest, hitting his heart.

At this the boy waited, expectantly.

Slowly, Alucard pulled the odd knife from his heart, maximizing the sound of tearing and cracking as curves and angles caught rib bones. Petting the blade he watched the boy.

"Quite interesting! It _truly_ hurt, marvelous detail in the edge and then the hooked point- _exquisite!_ Did you make this weapon?" The entire time he spoke, his eyes stared at the glinting sheen of the metal, his blood sizzling off in the light. Jake stood dumbfounded at what he was hearing as Alucard dusted the suddenly ash-like remains of the wound over his heart with a devilish smirk. "Silver blade! Wonderful! That will take more than a few seconds to recover from. I was afraid this fight would be less interesting than it has turned out to be, but luckily I am proved wrong!" Obviously the vampire's interest in the weapons had returned with his Cheshire cat grin.

"What – what the hell are you?" Jake thought aloud as Alucard flung that blade back at the boy. It hit him in the knee, which immediately failed to support the weight of his body and sent him falling almost gracefully to his other knee and arms.

_ 'Yea, I think his arms skipped ..some physiiiics,' _Vash sang his comments over what he had drunkenly labeled 'thought radio' in disjointed fashion.

Frowning replaced the grin. A very tangible lack of enthusiasm overtook Alucard. Staring into the young mans eyes he lulled him into a nightmare of his choosing. Haunted by things partially-memory and mostly evil, the vampire forced his way to what he needed – dates, locations, and _who._ His answers were found along with a long list of other _more interesting_ discoveries.

"Vash," Alucard asked as he released Jake from the grip his eyes had on his mental state, "I would like to change our search, if it is alright with you." There was no wait for a response, Alucard turned after Jake had fallen limply on his side, convulsing, and hefted Vash on his shoulders. "Your brother Knives seems to have unintentionally invited me to his domain with this envoy of his. If he has half the technology the boy's thoughts described, I will have more than enough of what I would need to create synthetic blood for myself. Not to mention he has something that may cure my boredom for a while.' Alucard explained.

_ "_Invited to a party with allllll the Jerks const'ntly fooooollowing me arrouund,_" _Vash continued to sing, unable to move much due to a very spinny-world. He hung limply off of Alucard's shoulder like a dead body. It was then that Jake came into view, no longer convulsing.

_"Hey!" _His voice came so crystal clear and full of urgency that even Alucard stopped moving to listen. Unfortunately it was followed by a very wobbly, and childlike, "Iiis heee alive, Alu..cars- Cards...?"

"As I mentioned before, my powers are harder to control with no one holding my leash. The Hellsing family…" Alucard drifted off as if in a dreadful and wonderful day-dream which faded in seconds, "In any case, the boy looks worse than he actually is. When he wakes up he will immediately make his way back to Knives and explain to him, rather blatantly, that I am coming to overtake his home," Alucard ended the sentence with an almost maniacal chuckle that chilled Vash's bones.

_ Jeeze, you're creepy! _Vash thought half to Alucard. The statement was followed with another, deeper, chuckle. 'Thought Radio' singing ensued, more verbally than mentally as Alucard walked towards the ship only partially visible above the sand now. His steps were heavy for him, almost burdened. With a calm glance, the ground shook, and a large black object came shooting out of the ground to land gently and vertically next to him. _What the heck?_ Vash's thoughts yelled at the suddenness of it. Alucard's black coffin only inches from his face. Smirking, he looked the way that they had been heading before stopping to rest.

_ Okay…_Vash thought, interupting his new job as mental DJ-ist to recover from the last new trick Alucard had shown him. "Look, Knives ...let's avoid him! He-" The thought ended and a faint whisper of _Rem_ caused Alucard to pause a last time and stare at Vash with an expression of pure annoyance.

"Alright, I have had enough of this," Alucard said, the smirk leaving his face. The temperature seemed to drop by a few significant degrees. "As a sign of respect and courtesy, I have not read your memories too far, but if you continue to omit some crucial details about your existence along with your brother's, I will _break_ that polite barrier preventing it." His tone was cold as he spoke. "I have already gathered enough from the boy and the old man to know that somehow you and your brother are connected to the humans being on this planet, so do not pretend I can't put two and two together."

_ "_Heyy, you know – i'll tell you allls stuff y'needs._..My _brother ...is psycho..perth, _path. You got any br'thers? _I didn't th'nk so's! We - _"_ Vash stumbled into a silence before the main subject went on, apparently not drunk enough to freely engage. His noble steed dealing with extreme light exposure had little patience for it. He could wait until a more sober time. He could have.

When the singing began the memory struck to clear a bell that he did not hesitate to drop him from his shoulder so irritated did he become. The slurred noise disgraced the gentle words... Unaccustomed to such _failure, _such truth without need of further explanation, he literally melted into the ground as a puddle of black sinking into the pores of the sand.

All the while Vash continued singing: "SoooooOOOoo...On the first evning,  
a pebble from somewh're drops upon the world..." His voice cracked often. Tears streamed down his face which contorted oddly in the drunk stupor of amplified emotion.

-!-!-!-

Vash wished he could see Alucard's face as he swayed slightly over his back, occasionally getting a glimpse of the odd insignia on his white gloves as his arms moved. He felt tired, but could not remember much. This made him grateful. Silence followed again, and finally Vash's curiosity got the best of him.

_ Eh, Alucard?_ He thought timidly, trying to find out if he had somehow pissed off an extremely powerful unhuman by being so, well, _drunk on the job._

"We're here," The deep voice held a quality about it that hadn't been there before. Emotion?

_ Eh, what?_ Vash asked, not fully comprehending what Alucard had just said. _The next city was a full day away, there's no way we're there alread- Woah! _Vash thought, amazed as he saw the gate of a city North of the one he had thought they were heading. _What? Why are we here? Wait… How did we get here! There was no way we could have traveled that fast! _Vash gawked as he managed to maneuver his head to see the gate more clearly with the poison finally beginning to wear off. His back ached terribly from blisters gained after being left in the hot sun all day by his caring Earth-friend who'd spent the day napping underground. At least, he assumed it was sleep. At night he had risen to a very quiet companion staring at him.

"Effects of the drugs." Alucard stated simply, walking through the front gate with odd stares from the armed guards. Inside, the city looked exactly like that of other smaller towns with the exception of a wider range of shops and more space to move around in. He walked directly to the next hotel. The man at the door way stopped them.

"Excuse me, sir, but I cannot allow you to enter here in such…_rags,"_ The man said coolly. Alucard, unaffected, did not bother to smirk like usual and didn't say anything at all, only extended a hand. A key was given immediately.

_ Are you going to do that every time we need a place to stay?_

"Of course."

The pair made it to the room in extended silence. At first the hotel warmed Vash. The desert hit freezing every night and hotels usually kept a toasty interior, often charging more because of it. Now he felt the warmth leaving in degrees per minute. Ahead a door to a room opened before them and casually Alucard walked in with his human cargo, boots absorbing sound instead of making it. Shivering overtook him as Alucard lay him a little too carefully onto the bed. The man's coffin slowly rose from the boards of the floor, surrounding areas warping momentarily to accommodate it's apparent will to be there. Instead of mentioning day three without food, the vampire evaporated into the air without a word.

"What the Hell-" Then it hit him. Something had changed without him knowing, and he knew how dangerous that could be. _Crap! What'd I do? _

Before he knew it, he found himself stumbling through town, desperate to stop violence before it broke itself loose.

-!-!-!-

It was morning. Sunlight illuminated his form slouched over in the inner market bench. In a normals town there would be a saloon or a bakery, here there were only rotting memories of what had been their structures. Half conscious he watched as people moved in and out of make shift stalls before thinning out for lunch. A withered serenity overtook him. For the most part people ignored him.

_ I wonder what Maryl's doing right now, _Vash thought, thinking he was alone. He had spent most of the night attempting to find his so called traveling buddy but given up after seeing no evidence of harm anywhere. _She's probably still mad at me, _Vash sighed staring at some of the stars becoming visible in the growing darkness. _Knowing her, she's probably- _His thoughts were cut off, rather abruptly, by a certain blunt, overly proper, man of destruction. Any and all peaceful thoughts of his favorite insurance girls were chased off immediately.

_ How do you manage to function with so little sleep?_ Alucard asked, interrupting his peace.

_ Damn it,_ Vash thought as his earlier tensions resurfaced.

_ In truth, I can't, but I get along somehow. So you're not mad at my brother or me, even though he's trying to kill all the humans? I guess I should have known since you don't seem to really care about them either- _

_ "Mad? I am furious. However, I do plan to keep him alive enough for your so called 'rehabilitation', _Alucard stated after cutting him off. Vash flinched as a strange undercurrent of emotion seemed to weave its way through, subtly highlighting bits. "_As for you, I would have to be an idiot to believe you had any part of making the humans land here on purpose, you are forgiven in any part you played accidentally in your brother's strange game."_

_ You care about humans? _Vash asked, amazed. He lightly wondered if he should help his traveling companion find his brother when he had that kind of violence in mind as the rest of what Alucard had said sunk in. _Erm, don't put my brother in a coma or anything, I don't think I could rehabilitate him that way…_ No response.

Finally there came a hushed train of thought. "_Vash, you've had little sleep in the past two days or so. I know even beings like you need rest, so you have two choices: one; that you sleep for another day and thus end up wasting it; or two, that you ignore you're weary body which was worsened by poison and tread onwards towards Knives's domain._ Alucard seemed to be unbiased towards either of the ideas as he spoke, leaving Vash to figure out what he was getting at on his own.

Vash was silent as he stood up and walked slowly around the bench, wobbling a little. The poison, if you could even call it that with such ludicrous effects, had left him an inability to distinguish the passage of time properly. One moment he would be sitting, the next he apparently teleported to somewhere else. Chunks of memory were being omitted. Over the night he had tried to ignore it, carefully walking through town, now he decided to try harder to remember.

"I guess," Vash said aloud with a shiver running along his spine, "I have to choose…" Something in the back of his head screamed 'No!' and he stopped in mid-sentence. "I can walk, it'll just be like a fun ride for kids is all," he quickly finished, wanting to be considerably closer to their destination and be rid of Alucard as he realized the vampire would be hungry again soon. It had already been a day since his last…Vash stopped that train of thought, his body remembering the pain and flinching. There was a pause, and then Alucard's presence left his mind.

_ That's your decision then,_ his words echoed as he left.

Vash sat back on the bench, the wave of déjà vu leaving him slightly but his body still convulsing slightly in the memory. _Why'd I have to remember that?_ _So he brought up the sleep thing to remind me he was feeling hungry? Then every two days is his limit, then. _He thought with a sickening feeling in his stomach.

-!-!-!-

"How long have we gone, so far?" Vash asked. An extreme pounding filled his head. Possibly an extremely late hang over experience – the first true blue of his life. Yea, he'd been drunk before, but most of it was acting. When you're body processes alcohol better than the average human and you're broke, you can only afford enough drink to get humanly buzzed but not humanly drunk enough to wash all sorrows away. _Maybe a powernap?_ He thought jokingly.

"My _grandmother_ takes powernaps, come on Vash. You can do it!" He imagined Maryl saying to cheer himself up. It was fairly easy to picture with as much time he had been spending with the insurance girls in recent months before he had met tall, dark, and gruesome. A harsh laughing distracted him. He looked around but saw nothing funny about his situation as his imagined Maryl and Millie vanished.

"What?" Vash asked and saw to his horror that they had walked maybe half a mile from the city and he was already feeling like he was falling apart.

"I can still see the protective walls." Alucard commented the faint beginnings of a smirk returning to his face. Somehow Vash felt safer with that instead of the blank expression of late.

"You're kidding me," Vash mumbled weakly, wishing he had something to hit his head on as he realized that there was no way he could make it even halfway to the next dot on their mental map. Before they had left, Alucard explained what he had learned about Knives location from Jake. It was the remains of a ship buried underground but unlike others the remains were fully functioning near a small town called December. Having history with the desolate spot, Vash knew where to go. He sighed, knowing there was no shorter route as he unconsciously racked up the number of times he would have to be fed off of by Alucard.

"Alucard, can you hold off on erm…_feeding_ off of me for until we find another place away from a city? I don't want to hurt anyone if my arm changes again. Last time you-" Vash stopped, shuddering. His hangover somehow helped deal with it. Maybe his mind would block it out like it did certain chunks of traveling from place to place as it did now?

_ Scary, _he thought for a moment but forced himself to continue. "…last time, you said that my arm changed, and as I told you before it can do some really bad stuff when I can't control it."

"You're not afraid you'll blow me up?" Alucard said with a smirk, completely unaffected by Vash's unhidden shudders.

Vash looked at him nervously, "Well, you always say you're invincible and that you're already erm…_dead_, so I didn't think it would hurt you."

Alucard, apparently content with the answer, nodded. Vash sighed, and felt as if a large weight had been lifted off of him. Out of impatience with his companions speed, Alucard tossed him over his shoulder and walked back to the hotel. Remembering his earlier accommodations, the young man at the front desk bowed and greeted them with glazed eyes and a smile.

-!-!-!-!-!-!- -!-!-!-!-!-!-

**Authors rant:**

Sooooooo flame accepted. Just as a warning, this is the latest rewrite as i'm finishing the story. Before i'd tried to rush the plot I originally had for this in order to finish by the 8-10th chapter as planned, but now I knows better~ *~ *

ANYWHO:

Me: _edges slowly towards ALucard_

Alucard: _raises eyebrow watching me suspiciously_

Me: _edges closer a little more _

Alucard: Stop looking at me like that…its creepy from the person who could have me do whatever they want.

Me: _eyes widen _YOU'RE RIGHT! I CAN DO THAT, CANT I?

Alucard: Damn it... _fears for the worst_

Me: _hands him a revised edition of this with an evil smirk_'

Alucard: _suddenly gets mad_ HEY! THAT'S WORSE THAN WHAT I THOUGHT YOU WERE THINKING!

Me:D

Alucard: Fine. Here's my hat…_angrily gives me his hat…I immediately dance and put it on saying I'm Alucard and he's me…_XD


	6. Alucard gets shot by non other than

"Alright, so everything's mapped out in my head, and I had my doughnuts. I feel like a million bucks," Vash said with stretch. It was one of those rare days where the sun was covered haphazardly by wisps of clouds and a warm breeze blew all cares away. _Now all I have to do is pretend Alucard doesn't want to use me at meal time and then I can really enjoy the day! _Vash sighed.

_Speaking of which, I haven't had a bite in two days now, _Alucard's voice reminded Vash lightly.

"God, do you ever sleep? You spend all day in that creepy coffin and whenever I say something that gets your attention you randomly pop up in my head!" Vash complained aloud, trying to suppress a shudder. The market was empty so he decided he'd use his mouth for conversation – he missed being sane.

"Funny, I remember asking you much the same question yesterday," Alucard commented casually.

"Just leave me alone for a while. We're chasing after my brother and he's been tormenting me ever since the landing. I've never been able to find where he was before unless he _wanted_ me to. A week ago I ..." _Life was simpler. Who'd have though that possible? _With that Vash stood up, deciding to get as far away as possible from the Nosferatu before their travels resumed. He found himself sitting on a hill overlooking the city before he felt truly safe from Alucard's mind reading abilities, soaking in the light bathing him in energy.

_ Hey Alucard, you there?_ Vash tested. No response came, only the occasional noises leaking from the city to his distance. _Can you hear me?_ He tried again. Still nothing.

"I guess he can't read my thoughts then. Good," Vash commented, enjoying the sunlight for a change. He was tired of waking up just before night time. The day before he fell asleep in the hotel to find himself awake early the next day due to the poison –today now- and though he could still its effects somewhat, he could at least move around and tell the passing of time like usual. _Man, what was that stuff? _He thought, enjoying the missed privacy Alucard had stolen from him with his habit for reading thoughts.

_ I wonder if Knives made it. Does he spend a night now and then just getting freakishly wasted to forget our past? 'Sure, he was beat up a lot by that hot head in the space ship but so was I, and I don't hate humans for it. They just aren't used things that are…different from them is all. Then there's Rem… how could you possibly hate humans when there are people like her? Maryl and Millie too!_ Vash stopped thinking about Knives and Rem. They wore on his weakening demeanor.

For a while he stared at the town, its many buildings and large center space for socializing and shopping drawing his eye and memories, casting a haze of afterthought on all of it. The sand had kicked up a bit, giving the wind a more arid and hostile feel to his walks down things long past. _And then there's Alucard. _His gaze hovered over their hotel, images of a casket and a supposedly sleeping dead guy who seemed a nightmarish version of his self. A kind of Vash that Knives could only dream of having for a brother. The kind he would only accept for a brother.

_ He makes no sense whatsoever- everything he does is confuses me. Why does he kill an entire building of innocent people one moment and then suddenly find me and not kill anyone just 'cause I told him not to? It doesn't make any sense. Wait, why is he with me in the first place? _Vash thought, wondering when all of this happened. It all felt too poignantly nightmarish and real.

_ That's right,_ he thought, his alarm shrinking, _he woke up in a T.G.C building or something, because someone he called his master locked him up for a long time…Wait. Who's his master? The Hellsing family? But who are they? How can he say he has a "master" so casually in the first place! Agh! I didn't understand a thing he said when we first met and I just joined him as if it were the natural thing to do? I've helped this guy out when he murdered all those people- no, I helped him because he asked me to and if I hadn't he would have hurt more innocent people. Now my brother gained his attention and I'm not sure if he'll let him live –no, he hasn't lied so far, why would he now? I have to trust him or else I'll be paranoid about it the entire trip. But...how do I know he doesn't actually want to meet someone like himself? Neither of them care about anyone else! I told him not to kill anyone, and he hasn't yet. Crap, why does this stuff always happen to me!_

Vash stood up, realizing that he had to get some sleep before night came or he wouldn't be able to withstand another feeding from Alucard and be able to wake up in less than a half hour like the last time.

Slowly, he walked back towards the entrance to the city, ignoring the growing feeling of dread that after he went to sleep in the hotel he would have to find an isolated location. So far, he had narrowed his options to the farthest possible and private locations –the last thing he needed on his conscious was killing anyone within a large radius with his 'angel' arm.

He managed to walk past the gate before spotting a familiar tall blond making her way into a saloon. _What! _Vash thought, shocked at how narrowly he had managed to escape their sight. _How did they find me?_! Frantic, he raced towards the hotel for shelter.

"Vash!" He heard Maryl yell. He froze. _Oh crap..erm...Alucard!_ Again Maryl called his name, he could already hear her running towards him.

"You have no idea how familiar this feels..." Alucard mumbled, materializing behind Vash and towering over him slightly. "Get inside the hotel before she realizes that she really saw you," he ordered calmly. Vash, too amazed at how quickly Alucard had come and figured out his situation nodded and sprinted the remaining few yards to the hotel, carefully shutting the door behind him.

"Vash! You_ jerk!_ Me and Millie had to go through Heck to find you!" Maryl yelled, hitting Alucard on the head with a random object she was able to procure from her purse and fling at him. The temperature fell a few degrees and she stepped back, obviously taken back at how 'Vash' had failed to fall dramatically to the ground begging for mercy from the thrown object. Alucard turned around with a toothy smirk and lifted an eyebrow.

"May I ask why you felt compelled to do that, Miss?" Alucard asked, a subtle undertone of threat included. _Vash, I hope you fully comprehend what she has just done and that I will pay it back in full to you, _Alucard commented to Vash mentally, the object in his hand. A tin traveling cup had been the offending object.

Maryl stepped back a few paces as Alucard smiled with fangs showing from the corners of his mouth just as casually as ever. His body was a full three feet taller than hers as he loomed over her.

"S-sorry, m-mister!" Millie finally said as Maryl stared at Alucard with apprehension in her eyes. Breaking from her thrown situation, Maryl made a deep bow to hide her embarrassment and fear of the man in front of her as apology. Her stomach held a pit of fear she had experienced before. She knew when to back away in haste.

"I-I'm sorry,"She stuttered finally, still unable to look him in the eyes completely. "I thought you were someone else…you had his kind of clothing on – kind of anyway. How s-silly of me, your clothing is very different from his. The only thing in common is their color –crimson," Maryl finally finished, though she was beginning to walk away at this point and somewhat rambling in amazement. "That guy was _creepy!_" Alucard heard her say to Millie, thinking they were out of hearing range.

He stood there for less than a moment and then walked into the hotel.

"Thanks. Uh…What'd you mean about the whole 'pay me back in full'?" Vash asked anxiously. Alucard raised the tin cup and grinned menacingly.

"You won't know when, and you won't know how," he said simply, the grin replaced by a smirk wide enough to split his face in two. _He got that mad over getting hit with a tin cup? _Vash thought, slightly confused but tired nonetheless. Alucard walked past the front desk to the stairs leading to the floor with their room. His boots made seemed to pull in noise instead of make it as he moved.

_ If your insurance girls are here, it is a safe gamble to say they will be needing a place to stay, correct?_ Alucard thought as Vash made it to the hotel room.

_ Oh crap! You're right!_ Vash thought, his face scrunching up at the thought of leaving and not getting any sleep first. Only _one _hotel in this town existed in town.

_ 'Don't worry, we should be fine if we just stay in our rooms, _Vash assured him after a quick pause. Entering the room, he threw himself on the bed, Alucard already fazing into his coffin against the foot of the bed on the floor.

"_Worry?" _The voice sounded amused.

"Then why bring it up_?"_ Vash asked before nodding off.

_ Because every time we rest, you wake up halfway through the day and decide to wonder through the city,_ Alucard replied simply.

_ Oh right, _Vash said sheepishly, already feeling sleep grip him.

-!-!-!-

"Holy crap! Don't ever do that to me again!" Vash yelped as Alucard began laughing cruelly with a cup of water in his hands. "I have heard that this is one of the best ways to wake up people –apparently it was true. I've always wanted to try it but I didn't feel like incurring the wrath of any of my previous masters - though I did attempt to wake you up at least once before this measure was taken" Alucard remarked, now smirking from on top of his coffin.

"You really have to explain this whole 'master' and 'Hellsing' thing to me," Vash said annoyed, shaking cold water from his hair dog-style.

"We have two hours to find a remote place for me to feed and for you to gain consciousness after I am done," Alucard stated abruptly with his usual smirk returning, completely ignoring Vash's statement.

"What if I don't become conscious before the two hours is up?" Vash asked curiously, wondering why the vampire was being so specific.

"You'll be wasting another day and prolonging our trip together," Alucard said, examining his gloves with a look of curiosity. Vash's face scrunched up just thinking about how many more times he would have to be fed off of if the trip were prolonged by a day every time it happened. _I just have to hope,_ Vash thought to himself with a sigh. He silently walked down the hotel steps and into the first floor. The suns were about to hide themselves from the horizon as he pushed the front double doors open to have _Millie_ crash into him.

_ Oh God! It's Millie!_ He thought, not able to believe his bad luck. Quickly he grabbed Millie and forced her to the side of the building.

"Okay, Millie. I need to tell you something _very_ important, Alright?" Vash asked pleadingly. Millie nodded with her trademark smiles.

"Gee , Maryl sure was upset when she thought she saw you earlier, but it turned out to be some really scary guy-" She started, but Vash shushed her, putting a finger to his lips.

"Millie, please don't tell Maryl I was here!" he begged, eyes sparkling and widening for dramatic affect – his normal façade appearing. "If you tell her, she'll follow me and if she does, she'll get hurt! I don't want that to happen. I'm about to go after some really bad guys and when I'm done I'll go find her okay?" Vash explained looking Millie in the eyes.

"Promise?" She asked, her eyes fierce as she prepared herself to face Maryl –wherever she was at the moment.

"I, Vash the Stampede, do solemnly swear and promise to find you and Maryl after fighting the bad guys!" Vash said, his hand covering his heart for further effect. Millie, accepting this, gave him a giant bear hug which prevented him from breathing properly and nodded. She released him, leaving him gasping for breath with a solid thumbs up to show appreciation.

"Okay , I trust you, but if your make Maryl cry I'll never forgive you, okay?" She finished with a look that told him she meant it. He nodded and smiled, loving the giant teddy bear that was Millie with all his heart for letting him get past the city without being caught by Maryl's Vashdar ((radar…gaydar...vashdar…sure, it works:D)).

"Wish me luck!" Vash whispered as he crept his way from Millie and into the market circle trying to be unseen. _Wish me luck and hope I survive is more like it_, Vash thought as he finally reached the outside of the front gates.

He found Alucard already sitting on his coffin waiting for him, peering at the already moonless night sky outside the city. Prepared, he brought out a flashlight and beamed the light forward as the suns finally surrendered to the darkness, getting his bearings before leaving the city behind and heading towards the area he had chosen for his next experience with Alucard's literal blood-lust.

"Can you see in this? It's pitch dark with the moons gone, I have an extra flashlight," Vash asked, his mood somewhat improved after speaking to someone besides Alucard for a change (Millie). The earlier breeze had turned to frigid gusts.

"I can see perfectly accept for a certain area in which your flashlight is shining," Alucard said sarcastically, his gloved hand making impossible shadow beasts in the flashlights beam as he passed it through the light. Vash blinked and shook his head, and the many shadow puppets gradually disappeared though Alucard's hand hadn't been through the light in over a minute.

"You make me really glad there aren't any others like you on this planet," Vash commented, recuperating from what he marked as possibly the sixth thing Alucard had shown him since their first meeting that confused and shocked him. "erm, I mean… Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, well I did but not like-" Vash rambled, realizing how cruel he had sounded. _Crap._

"You said nothing wrong, it's good that I am the last of my kind on this planet. I spent at least two hundred years eliminating them on Earth before my hibernation," Alucard commented casually. Vash froze and turned, unable to believe what he had just heard. His face was twisted into an expression of pain and astonishment.

"W-what? Why!" Vash asked, seeing Alucard suddenly in a new perspective. Alucard, as if himself amazed looked back at Vash, his smirk gone.

"Perhaps I have said too much about my past for now. I will explain to you my job as a servant to the Hellsing family after we have defeated your brother and his subordinates, though maybe it would make more sense to you after I find my new master," Alucard explained coolly to Vash who was at this point extremely confused. _Why would he destroy his own people! Was he forced to?_ He thought, almost brought to tears at how positively horrible even the idea of it was. _I never really thought much about why I had never heard anything about vampires and stuff like that, is it really because_ _he killed his own kind?_

"I wouldn't dwell on it too long." Alucard interrupted, breaking his sudden chaotic conscious. "I'm hungry, and we've only traveled a short distance." Vash continued to look at Alucard, trying to guess why he would possibly do such a thing when he realized he had mentioned 'his _new _master.'

"'New master?" He asked, starting to walk again after the shock subsided. Alucard grinned, lifting up a gloved hand.

"As long as the symbols continue their presence, a member of the Hellsing family is alive and thus I am still bonded to them. Having been awakened so recently, I do not know who." The look on his face was the exact opposite of what he had expected – it was _joy!_

"I don't understand you at all," Vash complained half to himself, head shaking.

Another hour past before they finally made it to the sand dunes. The hilly nature of the sand created isolated spots in between them, and being miles away from the last city making it the only safe place for Vash to be bitten.

"Well, this is interesting. Sand dunes without plants holding the sand up," Alucard commented as Vash sat down.

"Sand worms go nuts during a certain time of the year and their jumping makes the sand move, and for some reason the sand tends to group in hills until the wind flattens them again. No one's ever really tried risking their neck to find out how it works, but I know at least that much," Vash tried to explain.

"I must see these 'sand worms' sometime," Alucard replied, placing his coffin next to Vash and sitting on it. Cold sweat ran through his pores. Now he remembered why he was there in the first place. _I wish it wasn't so painful,_ he thought forcing himself to sit next to Alucard. The flashlight sat on its side so he could see, but Vash turned it off. The small _click _somehow seemed ominous.

"You realize that every time after the first becomes considerably worse, correct?" Alucard asked before closing the small space between them. Vash nodded, his skin crawling and a shiver going up his spine as he sat there with Alucard next to him. _How much worse could it possibly get?_

Just as before, the sensation was ticklish at first but then Alucard bit down, the _crunch_ associated with it obliterating all thoughts as he braced for the rest of it. Cold replaced the warmth in his body as pain came in full volume, not staying in the same level for too long and not once becoming tolerable. Vash unconsciously struggled and fought, his eyes seeing darkness enclosing him. The pain continued to gain strength, as if pulling energy from Vash's struggling and torment.

_ Do not give in to the darkness! _Vash heard a harsh warning voice say as he felt the unholy blackness coil around his body, slowly pressing against his skin tighter and tighter until he couldn't breath. He heard sickening crunching as his rib cage. He felt all sanity leave him as he struggled harder against the death that ensnared him. Finally he stopped moving, unable to struggle anymore, and it was over in a sudden unending moment.

"Vash-" Alucard began, his voice filling the darkness Vash had thought had finally been ebbing away and bringing alarm that screamed 'fight or flight' to all sections of his brain. 'Frantic' did not begin to assess this properly. Not thinking, not hesitating: Vash lifted his revolver and only vaguely registered the squeezing of his trigger finger. There were a loud series of _clicks_ and _bangs _and consciousness left again.

-!-!-!-

Vash woke up shivering. Quickly, he felt his ribs, they were fine. He felt his neck, it was free of any marks just like the last time. _I thought I was going to die!_ He thought, a bright light shining into his face and breaking a few rays of sanity into the melancholy glooming his reality.

"I thought you would like to wake up with some light. You did pretty well, no one's ever lasted the second time before." "Although I stopped early for your sake. It's been one hour."

Vash didn't say anything, too preoccupied with the revolver in his hand – he smelled sulfur. Again his mind seemed to want to hide everything that happened when he was being fed off of, and he did not question why. All he remembered was the black _thing_ that almost killed him –or so he thought, since his ribs were not actually broken. His hands trembled, still in a state of shock, as he checked the bullet chamber. It was _empty_. Reading Vash's confusion, Alucard answered: "You have wonderful aim when you're scared to death! You shot me in the head five times, and once in the heart when you couldn't see me!" The vampire _applauded, _standing in the shadows.

_ I did that? I don't even remember taking my revolver out, not to mention anything before I was bitten. Was the thing that tried to kill me real or just a nightmare within a nightmare?_

"It was very real, but you felt pain because it was trying to kill your soul by crushing your will. That is what every human feels before their body dies, only I withdrew before you gave in –not that many remember the severity of the experience after turning into my _kind of monster_. In most cases they forget completely, too interested in their new powers. Giving in is what would have made you into me, or at least for a human it would. I've never dreamed of your particular background." Alucard lectured as if Vash were his student. Again it took more energy than Vash thought he had in him to even listen to that voice.

"'Sorry," Vash apologized; still trying to remember when exactly he had made the decision to shoot Alucard. _If he would have been human, he'd be dead right now. I would have killed him if it weren't for that!_ Vash thought, though he couldn't bring himself to beat himself up too much. All too quickly Alucard was beginning to mess with his sense of right and wrong –corrupting his morals, and he knew it. _I have to hurry and get this whole thing over with!_

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

**Authors rant**

Yay! They're finally getting somewhere! Alright, this chapter is one of the long-ish ones from what I can tell…so I won't rant too much. I think I'm loosing my touch, what do you think? I spent a little more time on this one since I had to explain some stuff about Alucard to Vash…once again I cant wait until the Knives/Vash/Alucard battle….its going to be in Alucard's pov I think…it'd be more fun to write that way, but it all comes down to whether or not I can figure out his thoughts..since his logic is kind of twisted…thinks I can kind of grasp it MEEEP! will try anyway: hope you liked the chapter :D

Vash: You haven't done anything over the fact that I haven't eaten anything but doughnuts the entire story so far…how do I survive!

Me:…good question..erm…you eat sunlight and gain nutrients from erm…water…yeah…water you drink.

Vash: But I've been traveling at night…

Me: yeah….erm…you eat moon light?

Vash: its been a moonless night like twice already due to your twisted logic of how the world works….

Me: you know what?

Vash: What?

Me: STOP COMPLAINING! flings doughnut box at him and runs away before he can complain more


	7. OMG

"So this is it?" Alucard asked casually as he scanned the shockingly barren city. Vash nodded vaguely, stopping to look away and rest. The last two times he had been fed off of were affecting him more severely than his resilience could keep up with. Recently he had found it impossible to think of Alucard as someone who could be considered a friend or even explain to himself why he shouldn't hate him. The only thing keeping him together now was Rem as he sat on the sand, feeling exhausted. Now that he thought about it, he had never been away from light for so long...

"Yeah, this is it. Half a mile past it should be the place. If we're still planning on doing this at night I'll need you to watch for anything he has lurking as defense. Once inside, i'm going to head straight for the control room – I can't imagine him anywhere else. "

"You know where he is in the ship already?" Alucard asked curiously.

"No, but back when we were in the ship in space, as I've said already, he liked going into the control room. He liked to watch what he had _started._" They had made the last two days a nonstop trek. No life existed above sand for the expanse they had traveled, only countless silent warnings: crosses of graveyards that whispered uncomfortably of humanity, life, and his own actions.

_Only a day or so at the most, _he felt his neck absentmindedly, _and then I can get away from this guy. He'll have something other than me to eat, and I'll have Knives._

"You've changed quite a bit after only a week of my company," Alucard noted with a grim smirk. "I guess your resilience is finally beginning to fade."

Vash forced himself to look at Alucard. _Damn it, _he thought, trying not to be annoyed at his companions constant state of not caring. _Think positive thoughts, _he impressed upon himself as he stood up and began walking.

"Let's rest in that saloon over there," Vash suggested. as they neared the twisted and malformed entry gates to the town. The building seemed to be held up entirely of crumbling brick and rotting wood. Vash fell asleep immediately after his brain registered that not a single bottle of liquor remained from the buildings happier youth. Vaguely he heard Alucard lay his coffin behind the saloon counter before drifting off.

_"Where are you going Vash? You can't save them all. You're not even supposed to care about the humans. Stop fighting me. Help me rid the planet of these parasites,"_ _Knives' voice echoed like it did so many years ago when they gazed at the thousands of sleeping people, safe inside their pods. A snap to his left made him turn his head violently, straining his ears._

_"Knives! Come out! We need to settle things now!" Vash yelled, his revolver out and ready to fire. Desert surrounded him now. It smelled of friction. _

_"It'll take more than that, brother!" Knives echoed. Light suddenly emanated from Vash's left arm, wings and feathers then sprouting and molding together to form a giant gun. The vast expanse of dust and sand started to condense and form structures: saloons, hotels, and bakeries with people last to form. They were beautiful at first. Sand giving birth to a city full of tan beings nearly floating over the shifting ground until colors gave way to faces and eyes matching those long dead. He remembered them. Their faces. All those he had ran by __**that **__day. All those he had killed that one single instant_.

_"…No!" Vash whispered, eyes widening in fear. "Not again! Everyone! Run away! Get out of the city!" Vash started yelling, waving his free arm as his left 'angel arm' powered up, trying to scare people away. No one listened, they all continued about their business, occasionally looking at the crazy man with a giant weapon for an arm. The gun began to tremble, gathering sunlight and producing deadly energy to power itself. Vash continued screaming at the top of his lungs, trying to make everyone run away, but now it was too late, as people began to realize the danger and back away in horror, Vash unleashed an energy which enveloped the city. A little boy to his left disintegrated as he stood by and watched – the center of the catastrophe. He closed his eyes and opened them again to find himself back at the cool landscape of trees and tall grass. A tear slid down his cheek as he felt his left hand shake. The last 'lesson' his brother gave. Every time he fired his prosthetic left arm, it bashed him. It was the mental hail of 'what have I done?' A constant reminder of how much he had done to the people he failed to save by being the one with the gun capable of destroying cities. _

_"You have killed more people that anyone I've ever dispensed, and yet you claim to protect them? I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and this companion I heard so much of before destroying the pitiful messenger you sent back to me. I'm not sure why you've decided to finally grow a pair, but by all means: it's been too long as it is. Welcome back! "_

He awoke to the sensation of falling. His hands grasped at a smooth surface, gaining no hold and slipping.

"Knives!" He yelled. Extremely groggy, he braced for impact. It was jarring and uncoordinated when he hit the hard floor of the saloon and whipped to a crouch to peer into the evening light delicately lighting the remnants of tables and charred wood.

The laughter that came from absolutely everywhere was unexpected, to say the least. It held so much unbridled mockery that only Alucard could be capable of its level. He had, apparently, fallen off his bar stool. The slipping feeling had been his hands trying to hold onto a smooth counter top.

"Long three feet, was it?" Alucards smirk held practically split his face in half.

_"_Yes it was, thank you!" Vash smiled grimly. _I must be very close to Knives if he was able to send me dreams_, he thought, not relaxing easily.

"Hm?" Alucard asked, casually sitting on his coffin, he had most likely seen him squirming before falling but had just watched the spectacle spill onto the floor in comedic style.

"We're close. Let's go and get this over with," he said feeling less than himself.

"Lead the way," Alucard intoned, hefting his black coffin onto his shoulders and standing by the saloon door.

-!-!-!-

"So those were robots?" Alucard asked, ripping the head off of the last of the mini army and casting it aside. Piles of mechanical garbage lay behind them. Vash nodded, digging in the sand at present. The ship itself was impressive. It spanned as long as the eye could go until tricks of desert heat and sand ripples played themselves out, hinting that the great chunk of technology never ended.

"Found it!" He mumbled to himself, lifting a small machine from the dirt into his hands and pressing foreign symbols. A curt _thwish_ noise made him look up. A door had opened before them, allowing entrance into the ship.

"Humans didn't use robots to protect themselves last time I was awake," Alucard stated unhappily. They peered inside the unlit entrance. As the time currently did not allow for the suns to be out, their pitiful flashlight showed a ten foot length of hallway. Alucard moved ahead of the light, preferring to see ahead.

"Welcome-to-Seed-ship-four-zero-three- V-A-S-H," greeted an automated voice from speakers placed along the ceiling. Lights flashed on halfway down the eerily quiet area. White walls tanned by dust and grayed through time revealed themselves.

"I think there is a lot that I have missed since being locked away." Alucard stated, sounding impressed by the electronic voice. "Does it understand speech or is it like a message answering system on a cellular telephone?"

"A what?"

"Did they not have telephones a century ago?"

"_When_ were you locked away, again?"

Alucard grinned and snapped his fingers. Every source of the sound instantly crackled and died.

"Nevermind."

The pair walked farther down the hall until a door opened before them, allowing them into the first section of the behemoth SEEDS ship.

Again that crackling noise followed by bits of plastic and speaker pieces hitting lightly against surfaces.

"Are you going to do that in _every _room?"

"You're absolutely right -there are more efficient ways!" Alucard closed his eyes and snapped his fingers a second time, this time as if on cue to something.

"You...didn't just take out _all_ of the speakers, right?" Vash wondered aloud.

"Yes."

"_Why?"_

_"Why not?"_

"What if, well, I – I guess we're not going to surprise them _now_."

"Now they can talk to us in person.

"I'm sure Knives gave them something to use other than ship speakers -"

"Those are gone as well."

Vash threw his hands up in the air, wishing madly for donuts and a bench. Experiencing a lack of both, he examined the large room. It appeared to have been devoted once to storage and loading. Gridded cat walks made an intricate maize at least a hotels height above them and stacks of highly organized and secured storage units lined the walls. The very air of the space exuded a level of high use. The site of units having been moved, the lack of dust, the foot prints in sand accumulating on the hard metal-like floors, and more importantly the _blood_ leaking from one of the storage boxes themselves a little ways off. Vash began to move towards it.

"That was _unnecessary,_" called an obviously annoyed voice from somewhere within the large room. Between the boxes, catwalks, and echoing of boots, Vash eyed his surroundings carefully.

"Our young friend Jake is inside that box." Alucard commented, ignoring the voice. Upon seeing Vash moving towards the red stained box he shook his head and softly answered the unspoken question: "He's dead. You're brother wants you to feel turmoil – don't feed the beast, please."

Hesitating, the Humanoid Typhoon backed away, keeping his back to tall island of units as he scanned the room for the source of the voice.

"Where is the control room?" Alucard asked.

"At the opposite end. We have to get to the top of the cat walks to get into the passenger area and follow that through-"

Without warning, Alucard grabbed Vash by back of his coat and tossed him like a toy upwards.

Reflexes saved him. He clung onto a catwalk rail before descent could make friends between his skull and the floor several catwalk levels below.

"Jeeze, Guy -what was that for!?" He managed to yell to the tiny form of a red dressed vampire below. The man waved in response and walked down the maize of boxes, disappearing_ through_ a thick wall.

"Oh, right. He can just _walk_ through anything he wants! Some people have all the luc-"

"'Ello, there! You know_, ignorin' people is rude t'mos people. " _A graveled voice boomed into his ears as he turned to see a pair of lovely translucent eyes through the sites on a very formidable looking weapon pointed dead center of Vash's forehead. The man was short but highly muscular. A beard covered most of this face under his nose. Really the height difference was such that he must have been a full four feet shorter.

"You're absolutely right, how about- " And Vash was gone before the the bearded man fired. Oddly enough when it did fire, he aimed high at the ceiling above his would be victim.

Small beads of what resembled black fire spread across the ceiling, at first looking startlingly like fireworks for daytime use. Confused, Vash watched as one small black piece landed on his coat sleeve. The response was immediate. The thing suddenly donned eight legs and crawled quickly towards his neck.

"NO, i've had enough neck biters, thanks!" He smashed his hand on it and rubbed it into his jacket to find it left a soot like stain. He dodged and tried to avoid them in the dim lighting, aiming to make it to the door he knew existed just at the end of the next catwalk, just as the metal-like grid shook with extra weight. Bearded man had resumed his hunt, not dealing well with maneuvering the grids with his stature.

The door was within site Vash fired a few rounds at to slow the persuit but managed to gain seven new soot-spiders -he had no idea what else to call them. Struggling, he began smashing them with his gloved hands.

"Agh, why _spiders?!"_

The white door did not open for him. _Crap! _A very large fuzzy soot-spider landed on his back as he struggled with the door electronics. He hardly felt the thing until it started to crawl into his collar. Meanwhile the heavy shaking of the grid told him his new friend had caught up with him again. Desperate, he kicked at the railing next to him. _I can use it to pry the door open! _It broke off and fell to the first floor. A brief, agitated, silence overtook him for a about a quarter second.

_'Seriously? I needed that! _

The big spider suddenly made contact with his skin and a severe burning added to the power he gave to kicking another piece of railing off – this time grasping it.

The second he had it he scooped the spider off of his neck and stomped it with his boot. Half of it had disintegrated. "What are these things?"

The bearded man lifted his weapon and aimed. Ignoring the spiders recently landing on his person, Vash shot the mans hand. Not wasting a second, he jammed the railing into the door where it met the wall and jimmied it open. The door, however, had other plans. It did not want to stay open, increasing pressure to remain shut. The frequency of boot steps ceased.

Vash took in a quick breath, dodging a bullet and then a punch that could have landed into his gut from the Spiderman.

"Stop yer movin'!

"No thanks!"

He turned, ready to jump from the cat walk when, as if by magic, the door opened. Vash ran inside and the door shut as quickly as if it had been trying to _close_ and not _open._

"_Ding!"_ Alucard joked as Vash flattened the last of the soot-spiders into his jacket. It looked much darker as a result. He felt the burn on his neck and winced, his fingers trailing bumps until one gave in, his glove coming back with the clear fluid of a burn blister.

"_Very funny." _Vash thought back. Somehow he didn't remember the ding of the elevator doors when they had first met being so hilarious.

_"One last jest. Our contract is going to end soon, after all."_

_"Wait, who did you find?"_

_-!-!-!-_

"You'll regret that. You just lost what tiny advantage you had, idiot!" Cried an aged man despairingly. "I wanted to have a little fun," he explained after a brief pause, sounding let down.

"You will tell me where my master is." Alucard said, his voice coming from everywhere at once and amplified a hundred fold. It held a faint flicker of hyper impatience.

"_You work for Knives?"_ Asked the voice, once again sounding confused. It sounded young, but held a quality of much older confidence.

"Where is my Master? Where is _she?_" Alucard roared. He was not talking the to the enormous man attacking him. Before the man could give a baffled reply all of the boxes and machinery he hid behind were completely obliterated, Alucard racing through the middle towards him.

"What-!" Gasped a man in his fifties, bulging with muscles and eyes black with whatever augmentation had taken place to create a being his height of ten feet. Alucard dragged him along by his neck, ignoring his struggles.

"Where is my master?" Alucard asked as calmly as he could seemingly muster with such excitement rushing into his red eyes.

"I, I don't know what your talking about!" The man screamed, feeling a cold chill of fear and hard nails digging into, breaking, his skin and burrowing into neck muscle. It was programmed into most human Psyches: _Fear all that is and forever will be a monster._ Alucard was sending him this message now, making his victim understand killer instinct anew.

Alucard probed his mind, his grin not fading in the least at what he found. The man knew nothing.

_Can't breath! Can't breath! Oh God, I cant breath! _His thoughts screamed. Alucard's grin finally changed to an amused smirk, and he threw him to the side, his body flying across the floor now covered in demolished boxes and machinery and hitting the metal wall of the ship with a dull _thud. _Blood splattered around his body at the extreme impact and he slid slowly to the floor, not moving.

"I am too exited…" He mumbled, walking toward a pair of clear doors. That voice asked again what he needed, what he _came_ for, if not for the man who would eliminate the human race as his companion did. Once again, it was ignored.

In the hallway that the door led him through were numerous doors and labels, each locked. At the end of the hallways was an even larger room with an elevator to his left and stairs to his right, while a glass double door stood in front of him. He walked quickly towards the glass door. Glass shattered in all directions as he didn't bother opening them.

"Integra?" His voice was suddenly hushed. Another long hallway led to a titanium door blocking the entrance of yet another room with a keypad on the side for a password to open it. Smirking, he stared at the door intently and then walked into it.

Inside the middle of the room he stopped, closed his eyes and opened them. The excitement in his eyes was suddenly replaced by blood lust and resignation. He bowed to a glass tub filled with water and a young blond girl with blue eyes. No older than ten. Her eyes were closed, but they opened as Alucard grinned, looking up into her previously closed eyes.

"I have returned, _master."_


	8. not so positive fact revealed

Vash ran. It was all he could do to keep himself from going insane as Knives pounded his thoughts with images of all of the people he had killed in the cities he had destroyed.

"Damn it, Knives!" Vash yelled, aggravated. He had reached the control room door. It slid open and he prepared for the fight of his life…nothing. The small room was empty. Head hurting form the continuing hail of pictures and voices he leaned against the wall, gun hand to the side of his head in hopes of relieving the intense pressure.

"_Don't mind these people, vash. They're just a few of the many you eradicated in your pursuit of stopping me. It's not like they count anyway, although I thank you for a job made significantly easier with them gone,"_ Knives calmly explained to him. "_Though I was in the control room? Wrong, like so many other things Vash. Your memories of my childhood won't help you find me. I'll give you the answer to simplify things: level four. I guarantee you'll enjoy the present I have for you before reaching me though. _

The constant barrage of images and snide comments stopped, leaving Vash sudden time for thinking. Something was wrong. _Present?_ He thought, worriedly.

Shaking his head he began to run again. There was no time for thinking. For all her knew the "present" was some sort of sick game with a nearby town's population.

He turned a corner and met an elevator, doors opening for him before he even pressed the buttons. Cautiously, he entered. The door closed and it automatically rose upward. Apparently Knives had control over the elevator without the use of the main control room he had been in moments before.

The elevator stopped and so did his breathing before the doors opened. Ready for anything, he peered outside from his hidden spot within the elevator. No one fired any weapons and no sounds caught him as significantly threatening so he moved forward.

An incredibly large room confronted him. Catwalks spanning the ceiling and a few stairs leading up to a platform were the only things in the room. Anything else that had previously been there were obviously taken out for the fight, places where no dust covered the floor held testament to that.

"Where are you?" Vash mumbled to himself as he walked cautiously further into the room. His footsteps echoed off of the walls.

A soft footstep alerted him and he rapidly spun around to face nothing?

He heard another soft footstep to his right and spun around to see more nothing. More strange footstep noises echoes through the room until he counted six, meaning three people were in the room or one person had moved six steps. Where was the sound coming from?

"Your Vash?" A young voice asked from no where. More footsteps moving about. Vash moved in a full circle, trying to see everything at once.

"Welcome to my current home Vash," Knives said allowed. They were the first real words spoken between each other in ages. The problem was that he could not _see _his brother so there was no point to hearing outside of the mind.

"Where are you?" Vash said, wondering if he should have yelled it since he had no idea how far away his brother was.

"I'm nearby. Before we end this, I want you to meet the one you are fighting. Since you've been so hell bent on eradicating our kind by helping the humans I've pulled the DNA stored in this SEED ship which was to populate the earth with humans and altered it. Already, I am developing fully grown specimens who will grow into humanoid-plants. Some will be ready to help destroy the human race from this planet within the coming month," Knives explained. Vash froze, absolutely caught off guard.

"Knives!" Vash yelled angrily. He knew his brother had thoughts of doing something like this but had no idea he had actually gone through with it. How many people had he created merely for brief observation like lab rats and then destroyed before reaching this stage in his research? How had he not known of this project before?

"You know why I did this, right?" Knives' voice seemed to be right next to his ear and he jumped. "If I die or become captured then who will spread our kind throughout the world? No, I decided you would fight one of our kind since that is what will be destroyed if you ever caught me. By the way, he has no name, try to think of one before you die as a traitor to your own kind." The voice did not return and Vash listened for footsteps. He heard none.

Silence filled the room again.

Then the sound came again: soft footsteps moving all around him. They stopped, louder than he had heard them before. There was a clicking noise right behind him and immediately he ducked and rolled away as a gun _shot_ echoed through the room. Where was the no name opposition?!

"Why can't I see him?" Vash asked in hopes that Knives would respond. He did, but not the way he would have liked.

"We all have our special abilities as an individual. It depends on the type of plant that is altered with the DNA," Knives explained with a bored tone.

_Great, so he's either invisible or can move so fast I cant see him or a few things I cant imagine,_ Vash thought to himself. Another click notified him that he had been targeted and he jumped a good eight feet off of the ground.

_How am I going to fight blind? The echoes in the room make it impossible for me to measure how near or far away he is! _

-!--------!--------!-

Alucard put his hands to the glass and then gently placed his forehead to it, eyes closed. Blond hair swirled around the girl's body in magnificent movements. Her blank stare narrowed and focused on him through the glass. Seconds passed by as endless eternities without fail.

Without taking in breath, Alucard sighed. "This won't do. Even if you are my master in flesh you are not my master in mind."

His eyes opened and he stared into her eyes with an emotionless expression, delving into her being. Her thoughts were blank but that made what he was about to do all the easier. Ignoring the laws of physics, his arms went through the thick glass as if they didn't exist. Long gloved fingers reached traced ancient symbols onto her temples and finally he placed his index fingers on them. Sudden concentration filled his still-delving eyes. A few moments passed and nothing happened. Then: a slight involuntary twitch of movement in the girls hand began and Alucard released her from his touch to observe the next few moments with interest.

The body lurched into a sudden violent tossing and backbreaking movements as if by signal of the previously twitching hand. It seemed like her body was fighting something wholly unimaginable and definitely set on forcing her body to break. Minutes ticked by and the body began to slow, energy being completely spent already. Alucard frowned, and an angry aura filled the room. The body curled into a ball within the liquid-filled tube as it reached it.

_Come back. You have no choice but to come back. If I am freed upon this land I will destroy and create chaos. Blacken the sun and the ground in hopes of replicating my home sweet home: dear old Hell. You are not this thoughtless mass of flesh before me, the memories hide deep within your stolen DNA and I have destroyed the strange alterations made to it by whomever replicated you. Now bring back those memories and become my master: Integra Wingate Hellsing!_ Alucard demanded silently to the body. It stopped moving and seemed to give up for a few moments but suddenly - as if listening to his thoughts- stirred from it's curled up position.

Back straightened and floating tall, she opened her eyes. The stare was no longer blank – it was hard and cold. A hard brutal laugh was followed by a face splitting grin, fangs showing in his rapture. With a fluid movement he bowed. Glass shattered and Integra still floated as if still in the water which flowed in a brief torrent around his feet. Her cold expression didn't even adopt surprise at this, so used to the strange as she was after finally receiving the last of her memories. Just as he had said, they had been deep within her, erased but not forgotten. Alucard stepped up and pulled her body to him. He had already taken off his deep red overcoat and wrapped her in it for warmth. For all he knew the room was freezing.

Cradling her in his arms with that face splitting grin he walked out of the strange room towards an elevator. According to his eavesdropping on Vash and Knives mind conversation there would be an interesting battle to observe on level four. He never did get around to explaining to Vash that he could hear all conversations he made with his brother.

-!--------!--------!-

Vash managed to dodge the bullet four times out of five. One had hit his right leg near the knee and had slowed him down dramatically as he basically hopped around to dodge clicks.

_One more bullet and then he has to reload_, he thought encouragingly to himself. All he had to do was dodge one more bullet and then he would be able to –hopefully- hear him reloading his revolver as he could tell he had from the type of click it made.

He heard another click and dodged like he had the previous five. No shots followed the click however. _Oh crap_, he thought as he realized that the gunner wasn't going to pull the trigger until he was within range and by that time it would be too late. _If he would just talk about something I could tell what direction he's coming from!_ Vash thought, looking in all directions and knowing it was pointless.

_Alucard!? _He called silently, hoping the vampire was within range.

_"Yes?" Came an immediate reply. _

_I don't know how much time I have left but you don't have to meet up with me after you find your master. I probably won't be there, _Vash explained still straining his ears for sound.

_"Why is that? Change of plans?"_ The vampire sounded extremely amused.

_Yeah, _Vash replied, trying to hide the "I'm about to die," tone creeping into his thoughts.

_"My master asks if you would except help even if this obviously a family matter," _Alucard said suddenly. Catching Vash off guard.

_You found you master? _Vash thought.

"_I suggest you duck and roll forward as quickly as possible," _Alucard said, not answering the question and receiving an answer from vash about accepting help. Vash did and in the nick of time. A gun shot echoed half a second later.

There was a surprised silence from the movement of footsteps.

_You're here!?_ Vash asked, looking around for the familiar red coat Alucard donned.

"_Look up."_

Vash looked to the ceiling to see Alucard just visible and slowly waving. When had he gotten there?

"_Run as fast as you can away from the direction you're facing now," _Alucard said.

_What? He was out of ammo wasn't he? _

"_He isnt using it anymore. There's a small knife in his hands now about four inches long," _Alucard explained.

_Is there anyway I can make him more visible? _Vash ran quickly in the opposite direction.

There was a silence that was filled with footsteps before an answer came. The invisible offender seemed to have patience when regarding Vash, not rushing into anything hastily.

"_Aim your gun to your right and fire," _Alucard instructed. Vash listened, aimed, and shot in the blink of an eye. Blood dripped in midair, as if running down an invisible wall and a young boy of at least eleven appeared moments afterwards.

"You sent a _child_ after me!?" Vash roared angrily, knowing Knives would hear him. Without thinking he raced over to the boy. The bullet had hit just short of an inch away from his heart.

_Alucard! I didn't want to almost kill him!_

"_If had you aim at his shoulder but apparently he moved to a different position after I told you where to shoot,"_ no real tone of caring entered his tone.

The boy stood his ground, breathing heavily as blood stained his white shirt. In his left hand was the knife Alucard had warned him about.

"_Don't go near him," _Alucard warned, but Vash only slowed in his run to the boy. Carefully advansing.

"Do you know who I am?" Vash asked the boy who nodded with hatred in his eyes that matched Knives'.

"Enemy," the boy state simply. Vash was within two or three yard distance now. "Stay back," He demanded with heavy breathing.

Vash refused to obey and baby-stepped closer to him. With lightning movements, the boy threw the unloaded revolver down and pulled another knife from his boot. Vash rushed up to him, thinking he could grab the boys hands before he threw or jabbed one at him. He did but was now in a power struggle over the movement of the boys arms which he held in the air with all of his strength at the wrists. For one so young he matched Vash's strength easily making this more difficult than planned.

"'_Underestimation is a terrible thing to have at a moment like this,' my master comments." _Alucard quoted sarcastically.

_You can stop talking now_, Vash thought, frustrated. There was no response. Meanwhile the power struggle continued with minutes falling away with Vash's endurance. The boy's arms were either gaining strength or he was toying with Vash, testing him to see just how strong he was.

In a movement so fast that even Vash couldn't see it and prepare to block, the boy kicked him hard in the gut. Vash loosened his grip from the boys left arm for only a minute second and the boy took the opportunity to break that arm free.

**Writers rant:**

I don't think I deserve a writers rant today…in fact I probably will get chased out of for making people wait this long….sorrys…I have no good excuse other than pure lazyness and the fact that everytime I had writers block up and die I was not conveniently placed infront of com…but at least its done right? _Author tries to squirm out of this situation by listing positives in sly mannor…_ I mean, some writers just give up and _never_ come back to it!! Erm…like this one author whom I really liked but forgot the name conveniently…erm…and…that other one….and…..sure..right..anyway bows veerrryyy low to ground sorrys X.x;


End file.
